Product Management Report

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The State of Product Management 2010 Nic Newman

The State of Product of  Product Management 2010

A study of  of product product management best practice in UK digital media CONTENTS Methodology and acknowledgments Executive summary and conclusions 1. The role of product of  product management 2. The emerging product development process 3. Case studies 3.1. The Guardian 3.2. BBC iPlayer 3.3. Channel 4.com 3.4. Huddle.com 3.5. BBC Weather 3.6. Mobile IQ  3.7. BBC Wildlife Finder 4. Masterclass interviews 4.1. Anthony Rose – Rose  – BBC (iPlayer/YouView) 4.2. Hunter Walk ‐ YouTube 5. Conclusions: The secrets of product of  product success

Glossary Interviewees Bibliography

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THE AUTHOR: Nic Newman played a key role in shaping the BBC’s internet services over more than a decade. He was a founding member of the of  the BBC News Website, leading international coverage as World Editor (1997‐2001). As Head of Product of  Product Development for BBC News he helped introduce innovations such as blogs, podcasting and on‐demand video. Most recently he led digital teams, developing websites, mobile and interactive TV applications for News, Sport, Weather and Local. Nic is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism of  Journalism where he has published two recent reports on social media and mainstream media. He is a trainer, writer and consultant on digital media at the interface between technology and journalism. and journalism.

METHODOLOGY AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This study was completed in June and July 2010 and aims to explore product management best practice in the digital media industry. It aims to raise the profile and understanding of the of  the importance of the of  the role of the of  the product manager in the creation of successful of  successful digital products through interviews and case studies. These form the backdrop to a series of courses of  courses being launched by the BBC Academy from the autumn of 2010. of  2010. I am grateful to all of those of  those practitioners and observers across the industry who gave their time and expertise in the assembly of this of  this report and the accompanying films. Along the way I have been inspired by the many passionate and hardworking exponents of the of  the craft of product of  product management ‐ as I witnessed their work and attended product camps and forums. The role of product of  product manager may be little understood, but I am more convinced than ever that the creation of successful of  successful digital media products depends on the type of skills of  skills and talents showcased in this report. I am also indebted to the companies that have openly shared their expertise ‐ notably the BBC, Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times, Channel 4, Global Radio, You Tube, Mobile IQ  IQ and and Huddle. I am also indebted to the BBC’s Rebecca Salsbury and Chris Russell and to the BBC Academy’s Head of Technology of  Technology Andy Wilson, Jane Palmer and the team for their enormous support and encouragement throughout the project.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Product management is a nascent and little understood role within many media companies. This report highlights a number of key of  key trends and conclusions which will be of interest of  interest to practitioners and observers alike: •

The role of product of  product management is being taken increasingly seriously by media companies. More and more companies are raising the profile of  product leaders to the top table, rather than defining product management as 1

a subset of technology of  technology or marketing. •

Elsewhere, product management remains in a state of creative of  creative tension with other groups. Understanding of the of  the role is patchy at best and battles for control persist variously with editorial, user experience and design or technology. This can be at the expense of successful of  successful products and the self ‐ esteem of product of  product managers.

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The introduction of agile of  agile development methodologies is helping to clarify the role of product of  product managers in many organisations. Agile has made more visible the need for a product owner, who can represent audiences and stakeholders. It also provides a commonly understood framework for the wider product development lifecycle including proposition development and testing.

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At a detailed level, the role and responsibilities of a of  a product manager vary widely. There is little consistency in job in  job descriptions or use of common of  common terminology or process. In this respect, digital product management in the UK lags behind practice in the US and Silicon Valley in particular.

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Partly as a result of the of  the above, there is a strong desire in many parts of the of  the industry ‐ particularly in traditional media companies ‐ for better training and 2

skill development – development – as well as forums to drive common standards.

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FT and C4 are two companies where the product role has been raised to top table and recognition of the of  the value of ongoing of ongoing proposition management has increased. The BBC has begun a major push to raise the profile of product of product management. 2 A series of groups of groups have emerged in the past year. The first UK Product Camp was run in Richmond in May 2010, there is an active AOP Product forum and a separate digital media forum, where best practice has begun to be shared.

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The following sections aim to provide a common framework and language for product management in the digital media industry. Through the use of case of  case studies and masterclass interviews it also offers some detailed and practical guidance on how to create successful products that delight and inspire users.

1. The role of product of  product management Product management has a long and honourable pedigree. Concepts like product planning, audience research and testing, product lifecycles and product marketing have been successfully employed for many years to drive everything from pharmaceuticals and automobiles to chocolate bars and breakfast cereals. The principles are as old as the hills, but what has changed is the way technology ‐ and software in particular ‐ has created a whole new set of products of  products and platforms to surprise and delight consumers. In the process these technology‐led products have upset the balance of power of  power in many businesses – businesses – particularly in the media sector ‐ which traditionally viewed IT as little more than a support function. It is no co‐incidence that many of the of the most successful consumer products of the of  the last few decades have come from technology companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon and eBay. All of these of  these companies have adapted and redefined traditional product ideas to fit the culture and needs of a of  a software/technology business. In contrast, many editorial and creative companies have found it hard to see technology as a legitimate driver of their of  their businesses and have struggled to make the organisational and cultural changes required to deliver successful products. As a result the interface with editorial, user experience and design, marketing and sales remains something of a of  a battlefield – battlefield – with restructures rife and product management responsibilities split across different areas. Whatever the result of these of these battles is ‐ and wherever responsibilities finally sit ‐ the future of many of  many media businesses will depend on finding and empowering product leaders who can help define the right products and features to be built. And this report explains how the skills to manage an ‘ongoing digital promise’ to consumers are considerably different from those that have built the media companies of the of the past. This study looks at the experience of traditional of  traditional media companies like the BBC, Channel 4, the Guardian, Global Radio and the FT – FT  – as well as newer media companies such as Yahoo and You Tube. It focuses primarily on consumer based  consumer based  4

internet  products  products and services, but also recognises that business to business or  enterprise products enterprise products will also be relevant; companies like Huddle provide useful perspective and lessons in best practice in this area. Despite the different backgrounds of the of  the companies featured here, it is striking how the same principles and ideas are being applied; remarkable too how the same conclusions are being drawn about how to create successful digital media products.

1.1 What does a product manager do? In his book Inspired , author and consultant Marty Cagan describes the job the  job of the of  the 3

product manager as “to discover a discover a product that is valuable, usable and feasible”. His central point – point  – born out of bitter of  bitter personal experience – experience – is that brilliant engineers, designers or editors will be wasting their time if the if  the product idea isn’t right; if it if  it doesn’t meet a fundamental audience need. To some extent this has always been true, but the internet has swept away monopolies and lowered the barriers to entry. Greater competition, says Martin Eriksson VP Product at Huddle, means that now there is no hiding place for the half  decent‐product: In the the past   past  people  people would stay  would  stay with with your  product even  product even if it  if  it wasn’t  wasn’t great  great to to use. Today, any user  any  user can can jump  jump from  from one website to another  ‐  jump to something else, so you constantly need  constantly  need to to focus  focus back on back  on the user and  user  and how  how you you can make their lives their  lives easier.

It is this process of matching of  matching audience needs to business goals and capabilities that is the essence of a of  a product manager’s role. At the Financial Times, Head of Product, of  Product, Mary‐Beth Christie defines a product manager as someone who translates business problems into solutions by shaping products: The first  The  first thing thing is to make sure that you that  you understand the understand the problem  problem or the or  the opportunity that  opportunity that  you are trying to go for. go  for. It’s not  just building  just  building a solution that someone that someone else tells you to build. That is That  is the real distinction real  distinction between product  between  product management  management and  and a a  product  developer or  developer  or  junior   junior  producer.  producer.

At the Financial Times the role of product of  product management has grown in importance over the past few years; no longer mere translators, but shapers and thought leaders in their own right with a seat at the top table. The same has been true elsewhere. Anthony Rose came to the BBC from Australia with a track record of developing of  developing 4

successful products . He epitomises the passion, commitment and the technical 3 4

Marty Cagan ‐ Inspired: How to create products customers love SVPG Press 2008 Anthony Rose was former CTO of Kazaa/Altnet of Kazaa/Altnet

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understanding required to deliver a game‐changing, audience pleasing product like BBC iPlayer. He’s also a product manager who believes in ownership and personal responsibility: I think a think  a  product manager   product  manager is is someone who unambiguously thinks unambiguously thinks that they  that  they are are responsible for  responsible for the the success or  failure  failure of the of  the product.  product.

But the precise level of responsibility of responsibility is rarely clear cut. In most cases, product managers are not responsible for the editorial or commercial targets (Profit and Loss or P&L). Robin Pembrooke, who developed product operations at Yahoo before taking up his current role of Online of  Online Group Director at Global Radio, says the heart of  the responsibility is around product direction and roadmaps: “What is the product there to do, doing the proposition development, overseeing the design of the of  the website and managing the programme of work of  work that continues to evolve those products.” The modern product manager is a multi‐disciplined person who operates at the intersection of technology, of  technology, design, editorial and commercial and is able to bring all these elements together. Mike Bracken, Technology Director at Guardian News & Media, says that the essential qualities of the of  the job  job are “passion, expertise and knowledge of the of  the products that they are managing”. But beyond that, he stresses the diplomatic part of the of  the job,  job, the need for a product manager to look two ways; to maintain two conversations at once: “Firstly, with an end user; with the people who are consuming or paying for the end product and [secondly] to maintain a good working relationship and take a bunch of stakeholders of  stakeholders with them through the product development cycle.” But having well developed facilitation and translation skills does not mean that the product manager should play a passive or subservient role. Rebecca Salsbury, who has helped shape the BBC’s view of product of  product management, stresses the crucial evangelistic part of the of  the role:  A great  product manager   product manager is is someone who is a champion for  champion  for their  their  product ...  product ... In every  decision they make, they  make, in the way they  way  they communicate communicate to teams or to or  to senior board  senior board level, level, they are they  are representing the needs of the of  the audience at all  at  all times. times.

There are some tricks and tools that help product managers do their job their  job ‐ growing amounts of audience of audience data, new techniques for testing and prioritising the countless ideas and feature requests. Many of these of  these are explained in this report, but there is something else that is hard to teach; instinct and clarity of thought. of  thought.

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At Channel 4 they call it ‘good judgement’; ‘good judgement’; the ability to make the right call with enough technical knowledge on the one side and enough editorial understanding on the other. “Vision and gut instinct are essential,” says Anthony Rose. “You can’t be a product owner without having a vision and you can’t be a product owner without living the dream every day.” Marcelo Marer, General Manager, User Experience &Design at the BBC has seen the best product managers at work in the US, Latin America and the UK. He says it is about cutting through the noise and focussing on the things that really matter: They have They  have to feel  to  feel simplicity  simplicity in in their gut. their  gut. The easiest thing easiest  thing is to build a build  a  product with  product with too many  features.  features. There is a balance to be struck between struck between innovation and simplicity  and  simplicity and  and  it’s a really hard  really  hard art. art.

Ideal product managers are hard to find. They are held responsible for success or failure, but often without formal status or power. They need to understand audience need at all times, be on top of the of  the competition, be brilliant marketers and strategists

‐ and have a thorough grounding in technology, design, commercial and editorial. Their diplomatic and communication skills must be world class. It is a tough ask, but not impossible if you if  you have your entire organisation lined up behind you and a good understanding of your of  your own role.

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1.2 Problems of definition: of  definition: Products, platforms and features One of the of  the biggest challenges surrounding product management relates to the lack of common of  common definition about the term product itself. In the digital world, there are many different ways of looking of  looking at product – product – there are physical products, virtual products, business to business products (B2B) and consumer products (B2C). There are social products, mobile products, web products, and TV products. There are applications, widgets, modules, features, services and platforms. So we are often dealing with apples, oranges, pears and bananas – bananas – and yet we often lump them together without sufficient thought about both the commonalities and the differences. They may all end up in a fruit salad but the recipe will be different for each product and it is important to understand the ingredients, the flavour combinations as well as the tastes of the of  the target customer. One increasingly common distinction is between platforms between platforms and audience facing audience facing products  products.. That’s the distinction between, say, a content production system, or a rendering system on the one hand ‐ and a website with real users on the other. A few years ago these elements were hard to separate, but with the move to service based architecture and cloud computing, that is beginning to change. The Guardian’s strategy, articulated by technology chief Mike chief  Mike Bracken, is to turn itself from itself  from a publisher into a platform, on top of which of  which the products of the of  the future can be built: Platforms are things like identity, video, our open our  open platform  platform and R2 and R2 the the publishing  publishing  platform. These platforms These  platforms allow  products  products to be created and  created  and delivered  delivered to to end users. end  users. Products are recognisably consumed  recognisably consumed by  by end  end users. users.

And other organisations are making the same distinction – distinction – either using an in‐house platform or outsourcing the heavy duty platform services – services – and then building agile multi‐disciplinary product teams (consumer or B2B) on top. The BBC has just has  just reorganised its development teams in this way with a small number of product of  product managers, with resources attached ‐ aligned to the key products that end users 5

consume. Here are a few examples :

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•

News

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Sport

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iPlayer

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Homepage

•

Wildlife finder

A number of BBC of  BBC case studies using these products are discussed in section 6

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At the BBC, there is also now a central platform central platform engineering team that looks after common services such as video transcoding, identity, rendering and storage systems. Not all products split easily in this way and there are a number of special of  special cases. At 6

the BBC, Search, Search, the Embedded Media Embedded Media Player  and the Single Sign‐on/Identity system on/Identity system are both platform services AND consumer facing products at the same time. Each of  these has a consumer facing user interface, but they also provide dynamic services for other products and in this sense they have direct customers and internal customers (other product managers). Another special case might be a content production system, which also has two customers. There are the audience‐facing product managers who will have requirements for an iteration of their of  their consumer focussed products – products – and there are the users of the of  the system itself, who need to input content. In this sense, a content production system is really a business to business product, business product, a bit like the Huddle product in section 3.6 ‐ as well as being a crucial part of the of  the company’s platform company’s platform.. Organisationally it may or may not be called a product or sit in a product division, but the system owner will need to have a vision, understand and prioritise all the requirements, produce a roadmap and be an evangelist for the system – system – just  just like any audience facing product manager. Back on the audience facing side, there are many different ways of dividing of  dividing up large products into manageable chunks. At Channel 4, there is a short list of audience of  audience facing propositions: “We have Channel 4.com, E4.com, and three lifestyle verticals; food, homes and beauty,” says Richard Davidson‐Houston, who defines products as the creation and management of ongoing of  ongoing propositions: We differentiate between product  between  product management  management and  and commissioning commissioning for   for example. example. Commissioning might happen might  happen for   for something something that is that  is only online only  online very briefly  very  briefly or  or is is only  relevant very  relevant  very briefly  briefly whereas whereas an online product  online  product has has a  promise that continues that  continues over time. over  time.

The Guardian splits its website into verticals and allocates a product manager to areas of special of  special commercial or editorial interest such as jobs, as  jobs, dating or environment . Other companies like eBay sometimes split their product managers by audience group. At eBay, the sellers and the buyers have different product teams acting on their behalf, developing functionality and features to fit their needs – needs – with further more technically focussed product managers looking at cross cutting functionality like trust and reputation management systems.

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A single audio/video player is used across all BBC products including News, Sport and iPlayer

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Types of products of products in media organisations The following grid shows an illustrative list of products of  products that may exist in a media company and the relevant customers and domain knowledge for each. PRODUCT

CUSTOMERS

DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE

 Audience  facing Web Homepage News, Sport site Verticals (eg (eg jobs,  jobs, motors) E‐commerce (eg shops) Mobile website and applications TV on demand products (iPlayer)

End users End users End users End users End users End users

Portals News/Sport Jobs/Motors etc Transaction Mobile technologies Video technology, TV

Hybrid  service/products Hybrid service/products Search Identity Mapping Voting Social Email services Common media player

End users + other PMs End users + PMs End users + PMs End users + PMs + content producers End users + PMs End users + PMs + content producers End users + PMs

Search technologies Technology Mapping, data etc Technology Social technologies Email issues eg spam Video technologies UI

Business to business services Content Management systems Enterprise sharing systems

PMs + content producers PMs + content producers

CMS tech + workflow Sharing tech + workflows

Platform Service only  Advertising Transcoding Rendering

PMs only PMs only PMs only

Integration wt 3 pty Codecs, storage etc Optimisation, caching

rd

The list above helps to illustrate some of the of  the key skills that product managers need to have, depending of the of  the type of product of  product they are working on. The ones at the top of this of  this list will be very audience focussed with strong domain knowledge and the ability to talk to many different internal stakeholders. As you get to the bottom of  the list, the domain knowledge becomes much more deeply technical – technical – and the number of stakeholders of  stakeholders is smaller and more focussed. At the BBC, they are defining this kind of role of  role as a Technical Product Manager, normally an engineer with product management skills.

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1.3 Importance of domain of  domain knowledge Whilst user experience (UX) staff, engineers, audience specialists and project managers may move between projects, the product manager by definition is the one person who stays put. Key to the success – success – and to the status ‐ of a of  a product manager is their ability to master their domain; domain; an area of specialist of  specialist knowledge and expertise. An excellent example of this of  this is the BBC Wildlife finder case study in section 3.7. Tom Scott – Scott  – who played the product manager role in this case ‐ had to thoroughly understand the complex information architecture of the of  the natural world, the workflows and systems of the of  the Natural History Unit in Bristol, the competitive landscape in which the product sits ‐‐ and crucially the way these particular audiences think and behave. As the study explains, the whole product was based on a domain focussed  domain  focussed approach approach.. This knowledge can take years to acquire, which is why product managers need to demonstrate commitment to their product. “You have to stick with it, live it and breathe it ‐ commitment to the product is essential,” says Piers Jones who runs the product development team at the Guardian. It is possible to pick up that knowledge over time but it helps to have a passion in the subject already. “It was useful to have previous experience in weather and meteorology” says Peter Deslandes, who runs BBC Weather products, but he says it is perfectly possible to learn the domain. Tom Scott had a degree in biology – biology  – so instantly felt comfortable with the natural history domain, but there was still much knowledge to acquire and keep up to date. When Mike Bracken arrived as Technology Director at the Guardian in 2008, he found a large number of business of  business analysts and project managers, but a dearth of  domain expertise: “We had a had  a bunch of generalists of  generalists trying to run products, run  products, but they  but  they weren’t  weren’t technically  technically  specific enough about what  about  what constituted  constituted  products  products as end users end  users consumed them. consumed them. What  that led  that  led to to was that the that  the people  people who looked after  looked  after the the end  product line  product line weren’t really  weren’t  really   focussed on  focussed  on the end users.”  end  users.” 

Domain knowledge gives the product manager a sense of ownership, of  ownership, but it is also important in another way. In many media companies, there are large editorial teams who have extensive domain knowledge – knowledge – they have worked in the area all their lives. If the If  the product manager is unable to show the same level of knowledge of  knowledge of  commitment it can be almost impossible to exercise authority or leadership.

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1.4 Product management in editorial and creative organisations Overall user experience in a digital product is a mixture of content of  content and software – software – and for editorial organisations that raises a number of challenges. of  challenges. The intertwined nature of the of  the experience makes it hard to know where the editorial ends and the product begins – begins – and therefore where responsibility and overall ownership lies. “The container, the product, the package, in which the content resides is much more apparent than it is in a television screen,” says Richard Davidson‐Houston of Channel of  Channel 4. In an internet product, the content rarely fills the screen – screen – navigation, discovery, user interaction all play a far bigger role. BBC iPlayer is clearly a product in that sense, he says, but with a website like Channel4.com it is often hard for less web‐ literate people to understand the difference between the product and the content: “This is a very live debate at the moment ‐ we are still defining terms,” he says. This partly relates to the way in which media companies have worked for decades. The heart of the of  the creative process has been about assembling items into a finished package that can be sold on a newsstand or broadcast on television or radio. As Mike Bracken at the Guardian explains, the internet has turned that whole model upside down: The newspaper like newspaper  like the Guardian is a synthesis of 1600 of  1600 staff  plus  plus all the all  the external  contributors and results and  results in a single beautiful artefact  beautiful artefact the the next day. next  day. That  process  process of  taking all those all  those skills and distilling and  distilling it in it  in one product  one  product is is entirely the entirely  the opposite of what  of  what you you need digitally  need  digitally ‐‐ which is ability to ability  to create and iterate and  iterate and engage and  engage in a conversation with the user, and continue and continue to develop the the product   product with with the user. Those methods are polar  are  polar  opposites and that’s and that’s why many  why  many organisations organisations struggle.

At the Financial Times, Mary‐Beth Christie also sees the need for a clear distinction between the skills required to create content and the skills to deliver an ongoing promise to audiences: We build the build  the cereal box  cereal  box –  – editorial  editorial make make the cereal. We make sure it can it  can get out  get  out on on the shelves and can and can be displayed  properly and   properly and stays stays fresh  fresh ... It’s much more complex than complex  than the pure the  pure newspaper .

Part of the of  the complexity relates to the number of internal of  internal stakeholders that need to be kept onside. “It is very different from being a product manager at a software company,” says Piers Jones, Head of Product of  Product Development at the Guardian who has had experience of working of  working in a number of non of  non‐editorial organisations. “In media publishing you are working across technology, commercial and editorial and working

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with that group of people of  people to define what the product needs to be. The key difference is that you have a group of people of  people to bring with you on that journey.” that journey.” At BBC iPlayer, relations with the editorial divisions were extremely difficult until Ian Hunter was appointed as a trusted editorial voice to manage the issues and the stakeholders: “The world is extremely complicated,” he says. “We are finding that apparently simple technical changes often have unfortunate consequences on the other [editorial] side.” Hunter believes that a partnership approach based on mutual respect and trust is the only way of operating: of  operating: I’ve learnt that  learnt  that all  all  products  products are essentially a essentially a triumvirate. There is the technical means technical means of  delivery, there is the stuff being stuff  being delivered ... delivered  ... and then and  then there is the UX design UX  design bit in bit  in the middle and each and each of the of  the those has different constraints different constraints and methods and  methods of delivery  of  delivery and  and so so on ...you have to be tolerant and  tolerant  and make make a big effort to effort  to understand how  understand how the the world looks world  looks  from each of those of  those three angles.

In many organisations, it has become common practice to appoint an editorial lead, editorial lead, whose job whose job is to work with the product manager full time on defining the product, making calls on editorial issues and assessing and managing changes to workflow. These roles are sometimes used to co‐ordinate and drive editorial projects that utilise existing functionality or require only small changes to it. Organisations like the Financial Times and the BBC have found these roles essential in delivering successful projects – projects – especially those that involve workflow or significant editorial decisions. A full time editorial lead  editorial lead needs needs to be part of the of  the agile development process, involved in stand‐ups (morning product meetings) and sprint planning ‐ working as an integral part of the of  the product development team. In this sense, there is an editorial owner and a product owner. The product manager shapes it in a collaborative way. At the FT, this partnership this  partnership model has model has really begun to bed in. Mary‐Beth Christie says there is a growing mutual respect based on the simple fact that a good product manager produces better results: When Robert Shrimsley  Robert Shrimsley took  took over  over as as editor of  editor  of FT.com, FT.com, he said ‘what  said  ‘what do do the the product   product   people do?’ Now  do?’  Now he he gets the the fact   fact that  that  product managers  product  managers are vital to vital  to making things happen and it’s and it’s not an not  an add ‐on job on  job to someone who is a video editor. We work well  work  well with with editorial now. editorial  now. It was It  was delivering that made that made the difference.

In many of the of the organisations featured in this study, where editorial tends to be paramount but products tend to be technology driven, a well‐defined partnership model is proving to be the most effective way forward. 13

1.5 Whose product anyway? Whilst there is increasing consensus on the importance of the of  the product role, there is less agreement on who should play this role or where it should sit in an organisation. In recent years there has been a trend to sit the product managers as part of  technology. This is partly because the complexity of many of  many software products required the definition to be carried out by people with a strong affinity to technology, but also because it made it easier to leverage expensive solutions across multiple products. The Guardian, the New York Times and the BBC have largely gone down this route, whilst others place product managers with business units, within the marketing division or within a separate product division. Mary‐Beth Christie, who runs the product team at the Financial Times reports directly to the MD of FT.com: of  FT.com: In my experience my  experience I have found  have  found that  that it  it never  never makes makes sense for  sense  for  product to  product to sit under  sit  under  technical because technical  because then it is it  is not as not  as free  free to come up with new and  new  and different  different ideas ideas and not  and not  so open to using ideas that might  that  might sit  sit outside outside that internal  that  internal team. team.

At the Guardian, the team sits within technology but has a clear remit and structure of its of  its own. Mike Bracken, who runs the engineering side, introduced a product culture soon after he arrived three years ago. He says products have helped create an ongoing conversation with audiences around the brand, part of the of the wider strategy 7

of engagement of  engagement and mutualisation at the Guardian . But more practically, he says, having product management has made a huge difference in helping manage capacity and match it to product lines: If you If  you have invested in invested  in a  product manager,  product manager, that PM that  PM has helped create helped  create a business case that users that  users want. That then That  then gives you a clearly derived  clearly  derived set  set of  of requirements requirements for   for  your capacity  your  capacity in in a world where world  where everything is possible is  possible and everyone and  everyone wants everything tomorrow.

At Channel 4, the team has recently moved out of Future of  Future Media and Technology to become a separate area with reporting lines directly to the Chief Creative Chief Creative Officer. The driver here was to ensure that online was not seen as an add‐on and that there was a closer and more equal relationship with TV commissioning. “What we hope will happen now,” says Richard Davidson‐Houston Head of Channel of  Channel 4 Online is that “the other media ‐ the other platforms ‐ will be thought of at of  at the moment of  creation”. 7

Alan Rusbridger lecture on mutualisation http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/25/cudlipp ‐lecture‐ alan‐rusbridger

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The position in the organisation matters because it can be hard to have influence without control of budgets of  budgets or line management. The BBC is moving to a model that gives the product managers more control over resource and budgets. It’s a similar story at Microsoft where product managers have considerable influence and power as a result. But as Hunter Walk explains in section 4.2, at YouTube, product managers do not normally have line management responsibility, leaving them free to influence across different disciplines. The New York Times has been on an interesting journey. interesting journey. Product managers “did not exist in the early days of the of  the website,” says Chief Technology Chief Technology Officer Marc Frons. Then they became “all important and powerful” for a time, before playing a more balanced role today: Product managers Product  managers are still important, still  important, but not  but  not as as important as important  as they once they  once were in the grand scheme grand  scheme of things of  things as journalists as  journalists and technologists and  technologists have taken a larger role larger  role in shaping product  shaping  product strategy  strategy and  and in in product   product creation. creation.

Different people can play the product role depending on skills and requirements. A social product like Times People (right) is driven and owned by technologists, whereas an election, which requires very little new technical functionality, is essentially defined and owned by editorial. Fiona Spruill runs editorial developments at the New York Times: While there was a  product manager   product manager  for the  for  the election, the reality was reality was that in that  in no way was way  was the election product  election product driven driven from  from the the product   product group. group. It was It  was my boss my  boss who had the had  the high level view  level  view ... ... and he and  he obviously sits obviously sits in the Newsroom.

In other parts of the of  the New York Times website– such as editorial specials or multimedia features ‐ it will be someone from the Newsroom who effectively acts as product manager and defines requirements and user interactions. A similar division of labour of  labour comes from Global Radio where straightforward editorial projects are defined by the editorial side. Global’s Robin Pembrooke says ad‐ hoc commercial projects are often handled in the same pragmatic way: “A microsite may be led by the sales guy, who writes the brief and brief and the editor makes sure it links to brand guidelines.” 15

The problem, says Marcelo Marer at the BBC, is that the product metaphor doesn’t work for everything – everything – especially where editorial content is involved. “It is less about organisation, more about people”, he suggests. The key is to find the individual or group of individuals of  individuals with the right skills to play that product role. And in surveying a number of organisations of  organisations for this study, I found a significant amount of cross of  cross divisional product management going on. Across the industry, expensive, complex, strategically important products are now mostly managed by someone with a product manager label, but elsewhere pragmatism reigns with product skills and techniques spread across disciplines. There is little appetite – appetite – in content organisations at least – least  – to build massive new product structures. But none of this of this discussion over structure should detract from the importance of the of  the role ‐ or from the consistent need to work across departmental boundaries bringing clarity and understanding along the way.

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2. A Product Manager’s role in the development lifecycle This section sets out the product development lifecycle and explains the role of the of  the product manager at various stages of the of  the wider development process. It highlights a number of terms of  terms which crop up and are italicised in italicised  in subsequent chapters, notably in the case studies. There is a full glossary of terms of  terms at the end of this of  this report.

2.1 Product origination and assessing product opportunity Products can be initiated top‐down or bottom‐up. Sometimes strategic initiatives are announced by management and the product teams must scramble to match this to audience need. At other times, ideas bubble up and make it through an innovation or commissioning process and appear on a project or product slate. Some companies have a defined pipeline, which includes submission of ideas of  ideas into a process, using a scorecard evaluated against strategic objectives. This might involve the filing of an of  an opportunity assessment  opportunity assessment document  document or or short business proposal  business proposal , designed to outline the opportunity and release resource for more initial research. Elsewhere, the process is far more informal and ad‐hoc. Either way, at some point, a formal decision will be taken to invest more in a particular area or launch a new product. At this stage someone – someone – often a product manager – manager – is asked to take the product into discovery .

2.2 Product discovery Whether a product is being created from scratch or being upgraded with a new set of  features or functionality, the area of  product discovery   product  discovery  – sometimes called product  called product  vision or  proposition  proposition development  –  – is crucial. This part of the of  the process is all about ensuring that the right features are being built and prioritised; about being as sure as possible that the product will meet an audience need. The key to getting this right is research and there are a number of inputs of  inputs commonly used by a product manager at this stage. •

Market research : Often working with the audience insight team insight team or an external company, focus groups can provide insight on the wider market, current perceptions of the of  the product or test new concepts

•

Competitive analysis: A more strategic look at the market, audience and usage trends – trends  – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

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•

User behaviour: Existing behaviour can be studied using web‐analytics or by commissioning user testing on how features are used and valued by customers

•

Feedback and listening: Categorising existing feedback, feature requests from surveys and email and social media.

This process can take months or just or  just days, and this may depend on the strategic importance of the of  the product and on the money and time available. “The thing that I’ve increasingly realised is the need to test propositions rigorously up front and early,” says Global Radio’s Robin Pembrooke who has been working with the BBC and other players on an industry wide radio player. “Even before prototypes, you should get out there with high level concepts to see if it if  it is something that a particular demographic might be interested in.” It is worth remembering that many types of research of  research can be delivered extremely cheaply, especially when set against the cost of getting of  getting product features wrong. Often the input from the various research workstreams is shared with key stakeholders through workshops – workshops – to increase their understanding and to get their buy in. In the Guardian case study in section 3.1, exposing stakeholders directly to audience data really helped get a common view of the of  the most important elements. It is often helpful to agree a shared goal up front with a high level product  level product vision vision statement sometimes statement sometimes also known as an application definition statement (Mobile statement (Mobile IQ  case study). “A product  “A  product vision vision is absolutely essential,” says Richard Davidson‐Houston at Channel 4. “It keeps everyone honest. If you If  you have a strong enough vision that everyone can buy into and is proven through research then when questions come up, you just you just need to glance at the vision.” And at the BBC, Rebecca Salsbury agrees it both helps prioritise and provides a target for everyone to aim at. “I think it is probably the primary role of the of  the product manager to articulate that vision, in a way that is compelling.” Although audience insight, user experience, and business teams play a key part in discovery, all elements of the of  the team should be part of the of  the process. Technical architects need to have a view, for example, to ensure that prototypes that  prototypes and wireframes are technically feasible. The operations team may need to be involved in helping to define operational viability. Increasingly the product discovery process is iterative – iterative – just  just like the coding and testing parts of the of  the development process. The Weather case study in Section 3.3, 18

shows the value of a of  a number of rounds of  rounds of user of  user research during the discovery  phase,  phase, which helped to identify problems and test potential solutions using wireframes and prototypes. And all this before significant amounts of scarce of  scarce development resource were committed.

2.2.1 Business case and product definition methodologies By the end of the of  the discovery  phase,  phase, the product team will typically have pulled together the following items at a high level; product vision, product principles, minimum scope, and some kind of cost/benefit of  cost/benefit analysis ‐ the cost of implementation of implementation and the audience or commercial benefits. This output can then be cut in different ways. Typically, some combination of these of  these tools and methods will be used: •

Presentation: Useful for board level engagement and product level evangelising within editorial, marketing and commercial teams

•

document – often with a fixed template to go Business case: A detailed formal document – into a prioritisation process with a Product Council  Product Council or or Finance Committee.

•

Product Definition Document (PDD): Sometimes also known as a Vision and  Scope document . This is a longer and more detailed summary of the of  the vision, scope, high level functions, success criteria (audience and technical) aimed at the project team and its key stakeholder group, which will approve it and typically keep it under change control.

•

High‐fidelity prototype: Given the difficulty in getting stakeholders and developers to read and understand the same thing from a written document, 8

experts like Marty Cagan believe prototypes are a far more effective way to communicate how the product will work. Often this is the same prototype that has been tested and iterated with users. A lighter version of these of  these methods may be used earlier in the product  the  product discovery  discovery  phase to update key stakeholders on progress and release money for the ongoing shaping. These documents (especially the business case) may not be written by the product manager. There is often a senior manager or business owner sponsoring owner sponsoring the process. Even so, it is crucial that the product manager’s voice is consistently at the heart of  all three.

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In Inspired  Cagan says prototypes are the most useful way to describe the product to the rest of the of  the team. Examples can be found at www.svpg.com/examples

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2.3 Design and development In traditional software projects, the development team, working with a project manager would define all the work up‐front, making estimates and a project plan. This waterfall approach waterfall approach had the advantage of providing of  providing an impressive overview of all of  all the key milestones via a Microsoft Project Gantt chart, but rarely delivered on time and often wasted development effort by not doing the most important features first. As a result, most web and digital media companies interviewed for this study have moved to agile methodologies over the last few years. These place a premium on speed, transparency and minimum waste. Using a prototype and/or Product Definition Document (PDD) as the basis, features are fleshed out one by one, grouped together and then developed and tested in short chunks or iterations – iterations – until a minimum scope is reached and the product can be launched. 9

The product manager plays a key role in agile as product  as  product owner  owner ; representing the interests of stakeholders of  stakeholders and audiences at all times. The key task for the product manager/product owner in agile is managing the product  the  product backlog backlog,, which is essentially a prioritised list of bite of  bite sized tasks or features. Behind each feature is a user story  user  story , which is a tightly written description of the of  the user benefit with a short amount of additional of  additional information. This format is important because it stops the product manager specifying how the how  the feature should be implemented. In this way, says Martin Eriksson VP of Product of  Product at Huddle, a user story becomes the basis for a creative conversation with developers and designers. The beauty of  beauty  of a a user story  user  story is is that it  that  it is is an end goal. end  goal. It doesn’t  It  doesn’t have have all the all  the detail of  detail  of how  how  you do it ... it  ... and that  and that gets gets you to the development stage development stage much quicker.

A range of tools of  tools have been developed to make this process easier and more transparent. Mingle is one widely used tool for managing user stories and product 10

backlogs ‐ both writing them in the first place, but also prioritising them and then signing off completed off completed stories as part of the of  the acceptance process.

9

Core principles are explained concisely at http://www.agilemanifesto.org/ . Wikipedia is a good starting point for further reading on XP, Scrum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development 10

Mingle is a proprietary project management and collaboration platform that is built by ThoughtWorks Studio

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Other tools such as Pivotal Tracker  Pivotal Tracker  (see Mobile IQ  IQ and and Wildlife Finder case studies) are also now widely used by product and project managers as a way of enabling of  enabling real time collaboration around a shared, prioritised backlog – backlog – particularly useful for distributed teams. One drawback with Agile with  Agile,, is that it can be hard to get an overall schedule; you rarely know how many iterations will be required. Staff in Staff in management roles, in particular, felt comfortable with the (perceived) predictability of a of  a Waterfall approach Waterfall approach and the visibility of the of  the whole project up‐front. But there are some increasingly common techniques that can help provide equal comfort for stakeholders in an agile world: •

High fidelity prototypes mentioned in section 2.2.1 ‐ along with agile show and  show  and  tells ‐ can provide a common language around scope and progress.

•

The stripe (see Channel 4 case study) is an excellent way of providing of  providing an overview of all of  all the features and how they link back to the product vision.

•

Focussing on minimum scope, with burndown charts can provide some confidence around launch dates

The final area of focus of  focus for the product manager during the development phase is re‐ testing the actual product with audiences before release. No matter how good your discovery work, there is often a significant difference between a high‐fidelity prototype and production software using real content. In addition, some aspects of  scalability or user interaction require a different type of testing of  testing that can only be

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Pivotal Tracker is a free project management tool http://www.pivotaltracker.com/

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managed through large audience involvement or live deployment. These are some of  the most common techniques during the development and delivery phases: •

Qualitative user testing – testing – testing or retesting labels and functionality in detail

•

Quantitative testing – testing  – try it out with beta or closed beta (Weather case study)

•

Multivariate or A/B testing  – try different template configurations for certain

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functionality to see which one is liked most by users (iPlayer case study) or which improve key metrics (e.g. bounce or click through rates)

2.5 Launch, listen and review Key to the success of any of  any product is communicating its existence (new product) or the benefits of changes of  changes (existing product). Typically the product manager will work closely with a  product marketing  product marketing specialist on a schedule of communication of  communication with existing and potential new users. As the BBC Weather case study (Section 3.3) shows it can make a huge difference to involve marketing and communications specialists early in the process, helping to advise on how to minimise the negative impact of  changes and maximise positive buzz. No matter how good your preparation, there will be some issues that only emerge once a product has gone live. Ideally, there will be resources on hand for several weeks after launch. The product manager will be heavily involved in monitoring feedback via social media and feedback forms and usage data and prioritising any changes that need implementing quickly. The launch of a of  a new product is in many ways just ways  just a start; the beginning of a of  a relationship with users that may go on for years or decades. Once the immediate launch is out of the of  the way, it is important to review performance against the original objectives and to understand whether these have or have not been achieved. And so the cycle begins again. The case must be made for new investment and the product manager must think again about how their product can contribute to business goals to increase revenue, reach or audience appreciation. The product manager must be constantly looking at new technology and at what competitors are doing – doing  – and the roadmap must be adjusted accordingly. There is no set format for roadmaps, but most organisations aim to keep them updated on a rolling 12 month basis.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing excellent references here to the BBC’s use of this of  this and also criticism of Google’s of  Google’s overreliance on this method. Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multivariate_testing

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The steps outlined above and the terms described above are very similar to those used by the Guardian, whose product development process chart is reprinted below with their permission. It is set out in stages with a sign off point off  point at the end of each. of  each.

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3. Case studies 3.1 The Guardian Environment website The Guardian has always had a strong reputation for environmental coverage. In looking for new digital opportunities it seemed like an obvious sector to exploit in terms of building of  building ‘reach, revenue and influence’ – influence’ – the three core measures of  success at the Guardian. It was hoped that an improved environment section offer could drive new revenues outside the UK and offer important opportunities to influence opinion formers, politicians and corporations that were important to the Guardian Media Group. Finally, it was felt that a successful editorial product could support a wider business‐ to‐business strategy focussed on events and data/information services for environmental professionals.

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But whilst the genesis of a of  a new environment product may have come from the Guardian business strategy, the shaping of that of  that idea into a product that would delight consumers required the skills of a of  a product manager.

Mairead O'Connor came to product management from a background in management consultancy and business analysis. She saw her role as helping to bridge the gap between editorial and commercial, providing the audience and usability perspective – perspective – as well as crucially focussing and providing a vision for the product. A vision statement  –  – or high level objective level  objective ‐ came out of a of  a workshop with key editorial and commercial stakeholders, which happened during the discovery   phase of the of  the project and was described as follows: We want to want  to be the the place  place where people where  people go to find  to  find out  out what’s what’s happening to the world and  world  and  what they  what  they can can do about it. about  it.

O'Connor says that setting this kind of high of  high level objective is “the most important and useful thing” in developing a successful product. In this case, it provided a common jumping common jumping off point off  point for people with different backgrounds to think more openly about the possibilities: Rather than Rather  than just   just thinking thinking about news, about  news, which perhaps which  perhaps had been had  been our traditional  our  traditional stance, stance, we were thinking there are other  people  people that maybe that  maybe don’t know  don’t  know that  that they  they are are interested  in environmental issues. environmental issues. We wanted to wanted  to get these get  these people  people on board as board  as well.

This shared goal helped focus the discovery stage, discovery stage, conducted in a series of separate of  separate meetings with editorial, commercial and business to business teams. “ There There was no shortage of ideas. of  ideas. That’s never a problem here at the Guardian. The difficult thing is deciding which of these of  these things you do first”, says O’Connor. In order to provide structure for the process, she plotted all the emerging ideas on a matrix (below) to allow the cost and complexity to be evaluated against the 3 core key business objectives ‐ reach revenue and influence.

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This simple collaborative process helped all the stakeholders to get to common agreement ‐ quickly ‐ on the features that had the biggest impact for the least investment (top right). In complex and fast moving projects, these techniques ‐ which are drawn from management consulting ‐ are often far more effective and inclusive than a detailed document setting out the options. The core focus for the first iteration was a new site layout, content and branding. But as the project moved into wireframing, it proved difficult to reach consensus. Here, Mairead O’Connor evangelises the benefit of user of  user testing, putting different options in front of users of  users and especially getting stakeholders to attend the sessions. Watching the audience helped neutralise helped  neutralise the raging internal arguments internal arguments and  focus  focus all  minds on the audience needs.

A second important part of the of  the project was the creation of a of  a series of complex of  complex carbon calculators, an attempt to tell stories through data that users could interact with and share. This was technically complex to build and required close collaboration with a data specialist and with the Flash experts building the application itself. O’Connor used a simple Excel prototype to help flesh out her ideas and provide a common language that could be iterated over and over again until it was right: 26

There was never a never  a big document. We did it  did  it very  very much much based on based on conversation ... It was It  was something where doing a specification at the at  the start would  start  would never  never have have worked ... worked  ... the specification was in the detail. An detail.  An agile, iterative approach was the only way. only  way.

The creation of the of  the carbon calculators inevitably involved bespoke development, but much of the of  the rest of the of  the project was able to take advantage of earlier of  earlier heavy investment in the Guardian content management platform. By focussing on platforms, “developing a particular product on top can be a far quicker and simpler affair,” says O’Connor who recommends that all product managers ensure they have a good understanding of the of  the capabilities and limitations: Understanding what’s possible what’s  possible is crucial. It’s much more efficient if  efficient  if you you know what  know  what you you can and can’t  and  can’t do do from  from the start. But ...the But  ...the technology knowledge technology knowledge and skills and  skills I had were had were  just a  just  a very small  very  small  part of   part  of getting getting this done – it’s –  it’s definitely not  definitely not all  all about  about technology. technology.

One of the of  the key relationships was with commercial stakeholders where O’Connor found a real coincidence of interest of  interest over audiences. A focus on demographics and target groups played well with sales, who were comfortable talking about the same issues with advertisers. In this way an audience focussed product management approach can help bridge the gaps and mistrust that sometimes builds up between different cultures within media companies.

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Following the launch itself, there was an intense period of listening of  listening to audiences as they began to interact with the product. There was also PR to organise ‐ and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook were regularly monitored alongside web‐ analytics packages. This all fed back into further iterations of the of  the product, with subsequent releases and interactive features planned throughout the year to coincide with specific real life events. Increasingly the Guardian is thinking in terms of   product life  product  life cycles, cycles,  product  planning  planning and product  and product roadmaps roadmaps –  – an approach that involves new thinking: The traditional newspaper  traditional  newspaper approach approach is once you’ve got the got  the product   product out  out that’s that’s it. In terms of a of  a  product that   product that lives lives over time, over  time, you need to need  to get out  get  out of  of that  that mindset. mindset. It is It  is hard to hard  to get  people  people to step out of  out  of the the day ‐to‐day and  day  and think  think about  about the the product.  product. This is where the  product manager   product  manager can can be valuable.

And with the environment site now well established, it is time to think again about the next set of features, of  features, about revitalising the roadmap with plans that will attract the attention of users of  users and speak to the key objectives of driving of  driving reach, revenue and influence.

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3.2 BBC iPlayer Launched amid much fanfare in December 2007, BBC iPlayer is the UK’s best known and most popular video on‐demand service. But with the early excitement now over, this is an example of a of  a big, mature product that requires a different kind of product of  product management. With Anthony Rose (see section 4.1) having moved to become Chief Technical Chief Technical Officer 13

of YouView of  YouView , the Head of iPlayer, of  iPlayer, James

Hewines, faces two separate but equally important tasks: on the one hand, he has to keep the product developing so it is still seen as the benchmark for innovation in the industry. On the other, he needs to focus on the boring operational and legacy issues. “There is no point having new social features if the if  the media delivery isn’t working right,” he says. Hewines doesn’t use a formal product  formal  product vision vision statement. He prefers, instead, to see principles as a ‘stick of rock’ of  rock’ that run through everything and he builds these through hundreds of small of  small interactions over time. He says that the values come from the things he consistently emphasises in his leadership role and makes a fuss about. Chief amongst Chief  amongst those things is that the needs of the of  the audience must be paramount: That means That  means making sure that every  that  every team team member knows member knows that the that  the most important  most  important  thing is that the that the basic things that audiences that  audiences need work  need  work really  really reliably  reliably and  and really  really well. well.  And then  And  then when we design features design features that  elaborate on that, we do it in it  in a way that  way  that  makes it easy, it  easy, simple and  fun.  fun.

As part of the of  the drive to understand and satisfy audience needs, Hewines is an advocate of evidence of  evidence based product based product management techniques. techniques. Together with colleagues in the audience insight team insight  team,, he runs a sophisticated dashboard of  metrics about how the product is being used with clear targets for each. Core metrics include unique user growth (reach), minutes consumed (a measure of impact), of  impact), along with net promoter scores (a measure of quality of  quality over time). But beyond that, there is a wealth of other of  other data about how people are using the site and how they get there in the first place. The beta launch in May 2010 of the of  the new homepage with social 13

Common interface and standards for providing web delivered content to Freeview TVs

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features allowed Hewines to compare the performance of the of  the existing homepage and the new one to see which performed better: We have managed to managed to increase the number of  number  of visits visits where the sought  for content   for content is is  found on  found  on the home page home  page from  from 50% to 70% ‐ that is that  is a great metric great  metric which shows that  we’re doing a really good  really  good  job  job in making it as it  as easy as easy as possible  possible for   for  people  people to get the get  the content they  content  they need. need.

Closeness to audience insight teams is a crucial part of a of  a product manager’s job, manager’s job, says Hewines, providing empirical evidence that the product is getting easier to use, that user journeys user journeys are “free flowing and enjoyable”. In addition to web analytics, the team deploys regular surveys, conducts user testing, as well as looking at email feedback, blogs and Twitter – Twitter – which has proved an effective early warning system for the operations team. None of these of  these are seen as silver bullets, but taken together these tools and techniques make it easier for the modern product manager to stay close to audiences. In the early days of BBC of  BBC iPlayer, the role of marketing of  marketing was crucial in helping define the essence of the of  the product. The idea of being of  being able to consume TV and Radio output within a 7 day ‘catch up’  period   period  and the tag line ‘making the unmissable, unmissable’ unmissable ’ really helped sell a new concept ‐ watching TV on a computer ‐ to millions of ordinary of ordinary people. Now, Hewines is looking to the marketing team to help redefine the essence of the of  the product in a collaborative way: One of the of  the things we need to need  to shift to shift  to now is now  is a broader ‘entertain broader  ‘entertain me’  proposition,  proposition, rather  than 7 day  7  day catch catch up proposition. up  proposition. A  A shift like shift  like that can that  can only be only  be conceived and  conceived  and implemented  implemented  with marketing and  product working  product working hand in hand in hand...because it goes it  goes to the essence of  the proposition the  proposition itself.

So as the new marketing campaign is being developed, the product team has been fully involved in workshops to shape and understand the stories to be told.

Editorial interfaces The future direction of BBC of BBC iPlayer has often been a fraught affair. This is not surprising, given that the overall experience is a combination of content of  content and software and because the success of BBC of  BBC iPlayer was seen as being strategically important for the future of the of  the whole BBC. Changes to the product have thrown up regular editorial/technical dilemmas ‐ over labelling, rights, and functionality. James Hewines gives an example of the of  the BBC’s requirement to show parental guidance (PG) information before programmes are 30

played. He says the key thing was to deliver that feature in a way that captured the underlying editorial requirement, but in way that didn’t impinge on the audience. On a competitor website, he says, the PG implementation is four clicks every time before it is possible to play the programme because they’ve taken an editorial goal too specifically: It is It  is important  for a  for  a  product manager   product manager to to pull   pull back  back a a bit to bit  to look at  look  at what  what is is the essence of  what  people  people are trying to get at  get  at and  and what  what is is sensible way of  way  of accommodating accommodating that. It is It  is usually  possible  possible to find  to  find a a solution that makes that  makes everyone happy.

This often means pushing back on editorial policy or editorial figures who have a very specific idea of how  of  how the the feature should be implemented. Hewines has a background in business analysis which he says has been invaluable as pathway into product management ‐ as he puts it ‐ a bridging role between the ‘world of intention of  intention and the world of implementation’. of  implementation’. But product management is much more than that. It is also about high level analytical skills and diplomatic skills: The multidisciplinary view  multidisciplinary view is is crucial. You need to need  to be able to take the marketing view, the audience view, and the and  the editorial view  editorial view and  and synthesise synthesise those into a coherent whole. coherent whole. And   And  then you need to need  to communicate that in that in a way that  way  that is is sympathetic to their concerns their  concerns and  sell back  sell  back the the merits of why  of  why you you want to want  to go one way rather  way rather than than another.

Together with editorial lead Ian Hunter, Hewines has worked hard to build a ‘relationship of trust’ of  trust’ where it is clear that editorial risks will be taken seriously; making it possible to move beyond an adversarial dynamic, which had seen product people pushing to go faster and editorial saying ‘no’. Today, Hewines is looking to the future, looking to refresh the product without alienating loyal users – users  – as well as satisfying a wide range of internal of  internal requirements. In driving the product  the  product roadmap roadmap,, he starts with agreed top down goals such as the reach and impact targets and prioritises features that will achieve those objectives. These are then matched with constraints around capacity and resource, some of which of  which are pre‐allocated to essential architecture and infrastructure work. The resulting roadmap or portfolio should be strategic in focus, he says: “The danger is that you end up with a bottom up roadmap that is just is  just an assimilation of requests of  requests and that is to be avoided.” Hewines believes that a good product manager should focus relentlessly on doing the core things really well – well  – in this case being able to find and play the programmes they want really quickly. He is a believer in keeping things simple and putting the audience at the heart of everything of  everything you do. “Don’t imagine the audience is exactly like you,” he says “understand the spread of motivations of  motivations and try to do everything on their terms”. 31

3.3 BBC Weather website Back in 2008, the BBC Weather site was in poor shape. The design was dated and it was built on legacy technologies which were hard to support and maintain. It was much used, but unloved by audiences. There was so much wrong, that a 14

replatforming and redesign project was created, informed by audience research and backed with a business case and a vision and scope and  scope document. There was also significant top down engagement from the Journalism leadership group, including Deputy Director General Mark Byford. He saw an improved weather website as a key way of helping of  helping his division achieve its targets for reach and quality, as well as providing better weather services for the News, Sport and Local websites. Despite this good start and clear focus, there were some fundamental weaknesses. There was no dedicated product manager and insufficient editorial engagement, whilst a lack of full of  full time resource and changing personnel (project management and user experience) exacerbated the problems. The combination of replatforming of  replatforming and redesign made the project extremely complex to specify and build. The project took 18 months and when the new site was eventually launched, there was insufficient focus on the quality of the of  the product itself  ‐ testing whether it really met the original aims. Audiences hated it and voted with their feet. The site lost market share, the Net 15

Promoter score dropped significantly and the BBC received thousands of emails of  emails of  complaint: “It’s slow and  slow  and not  not user  user  friendly at   friendly  at all. all. The old one old one was 10 times better!”  “The new layout  new  layout is is extremely  poor.  poor. It is It  is very difficult  very  difficult to to navigate and get  and  get to to the information I need. The previous The  previous layout was layout  was much ....less cluttered.”  This case study focuses on the response to these problems ‐ which by contrast with the original project ‐ was iterative, audience centred and successful.

14

Involved changing the technologies behind the site as well as rearchitecting the solution Net Promoter operates on a scale of 1 of  1‐10. Promoters are those who give 9 or 10. Detractors are those marking 1‐6. The net promoter score is calculated by taking one from the other. 15

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Re‐visioning the product The starting point was an honest discussion of what of  what had gone wrong and what was required to put it right. Three key changes were put in place. Firstly, a dedicated product manager role was created for Weather and the role of  the corresponding editorial lead  editorial lead was was redefined. A new set of core of  core resources was assembled and co‐sited in a dedicated project space. Secondly, a member of the of  the audience insight team insight team was assigned to work alongside the product manager right from the start ‐ ensuring that whatever changes were made, they met key audience needs. Thirdly the core aims were revisited as articulated by product manager, Peter Deslandes: We wanted to wanted to give people give  people the  forecast they   forecast  they were were after, 24 hour  forecast and   forecast and  five  five day  detail. It needed  It  needed to to be accurate, and we and  we needed to needed to deliver it  deliver  it quickly  quickly and  and reliably. reliably. Stakeholder and audience demands for immediate change were intense and team members were aware that they couldn’t afford any more mistakes – mistakes – so a twin track strategy was adopted to manage the pressures. Some immediate obvious ‘quick fixes’ were identified and implemented, while an initial round of audience of  audience research was completed to resolve the more fundamental issues. The key task was to limit the scope of the of  the ‘quick wins’ and to ensure that the underlying fixes were not unduly held up. Two techniques were used to identify the key issues. Firstly, feedback from a survey on the site was read, classified and analysed and secondly a series of focus of  focus groups were assembled, using many of the of  the people who had written provided negative feedback in the survey. The entire team (developers, interaction designer, product manager and management) attended the focus groups and inputted thoughts and questions. Wireframe solutions were developed as the focus groups continued to ensure the shortest time to market.

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The focus groups and audience feedback drew out the key problems and key audience needs, which were prioritised and agreed by the stakeholder group. However the team were already working on the issues because they had been part of the of  the process. The issues were identified as follows: •

Improving local forecast layout (going back to a simpler layout)

•

Clarifying the purpose of the of  the front page/landing page

•

De‐cluttering and simplifying throughout.

The design solutions were then wireframed and rebuilt for qualitative usability testing and for a major quantitative exercise with over 1000 users including promoters and detractors and a nationally representative sample of weather of  weather website users, who were asked to compare the current site and the new site (available via a test web address).

16

Online survey of weather of weather website users by Essential Research, Nov 2009 (1,351 respondents). respondents).

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Overall this gave considerable confidence that the new site would be successful before it was launched. It showed that a significant proportion of the of  the detractors would become promoters of the of  the site. The vast majority of users of  users (88%) said they preferred the new 5 day and 24 hour layout. The new front page was also much preferred. Additionally the testing gave the product team hard evidence to push back on stakeholders who wished to change the labelling on the site, as the quantitative approach gave confidence that proposed labels worked with audiences. Silver Oliver, the weather interaction designer played designer played a key role, working closely with the product manager. He attended the focus groups and quickly came up with solutions for retesting. From a user experience perspective, he says it was a satisfying project to work on for three main reasons •

Emphasis was placed on trying to do a few things well as opposed to pleasing everyone, particularly those users who are the most vocal. “More functionality often places a greater distance (noise) between user and content. This redesign needed to return to the basic principles of providing of  providing the content in a clear and useful way.”

•

It was a small multi‐disciplinary team

•

Communication and decision making with senior stakeholders was well managed. “We asked them about design decisions we wanted them to make as opposed to having opinions on every detail.”

The project also benefitted from having a  product marketing  product  marketing representative as part of the of  the team. The role – role  – separate from audience insight ‐ was to work out a strategy 35

for communicating the changes and promoting the improvements externally – externally – this included on‐air promotion via radio and TV. Nicki Sheard, who was Head of  Marketing for BBC News at the time, explained the benefits of this of  this approach: It meant  It  meant we we were thinking on an ongoing basis about both about  both how to how  to migrate existing users successfully onto successfully onto the new  product to  product  to minimise loss of users of  users and  also how to how  to attract new  attract new users. users. Once the site was relaunched in December 2009, the impact was almost instant, helped by a period of poor of  poor weather/snow which brought users back. Market share increased by around 6% and the net promoter score recovered to pre‐refresh levels. Today, the same audience led approach is being used to prioritise the next steps on the product  the  product roadmap roadmap.. Having dealt with the critical issues on the original list, the next release is focussed on satisfying a series of detailed of  detailed audience concerns about the way the interactive maps work – work  – creating layers of data of  data that can be manipulated by users. Once again, the proposed solutions will be thoroughly tested with users before launch. The BBC Weather project is an example of a of  a growing trend towards evidence based product management, says Chris Russell Head of Product of  Product Management for BBC News and Knowledge: “We should be basing most of our of  our decisions on evidence and evidence is a very good way of choosing of  choosing between options as well”. For Louise Vinter of the of  the audience insight team, a key lesson has been the value of working of  working in partnership with the product management team and being closely involved throughout the project. “It was really important that the audiences team sat on the steering group, especially when we were talking about making fundamental changes to a site that millions use.” The BBC Weather project shows the value of using of  using audience data to drive significant product improvements. But that process still requires judgement requires judgement and tough decisions along the way and ultimately that comes down to a product manager.

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3.4 Channel 4.com In 2008 Channel 4 embarked on a major project to relaunch and redefine its core website proposition, Channel 4.com. For many years Channel 4.com “was a place where stuff was stuff was published and then left”, says Head of Online of  Online Richard Davidson‐Houston. “What we did was arrive at a proposition about what Channel 4.com ought to be, what permission we had, and what was likely to be useful and successful.” By talking to audiences it became clear that much of what of  what had appeared on Channel4.com in the past was of low of  low value and was distracting from the core user need, which was to ‘find and play Channel 4 programming quickly and simply’. At that point the focus of the of  the project became to strip away everything that didn’t support that purpose and replace what was there with something better.

The updated Channel 4 site (above) now integrates 4oD ‐ once a separate application

‐ and makes it easy to navigate around extra information about Channel 4 programmes. But getting to this slick new product involved a significant amount of  business change, technical development and stakeholder involvement. An important starting point was a vision statement agreed statement agreed with stakeholders. This said that Channel 4.com should be the ‘the authoritative source of information of information and content related to Channel 4 Television programmes’ ‐ and then beneath that vision, 37

there were a series of ranked of  ranked business objectives/success criteria split into four areas: commercial; business improvement; functional and public service. 17

Commercial objectives • 100% of programmes of  programmes with online presence Increase video advertising and sponsorship inventory by 25% •

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Business improvement objectives Time taken to produce mid level brand pages reduced by 40%. • • No extra production effort required for pages with clips and catch up Functional objectives 80% of brand of  brand pages are in top 3 rankings of UK of  UK search engines when exact term is used Interactions should be tracked on all brand pages •

•

Channel 4 corporate/reputation C4.com supports overall Channel 4 public service remit Access control prevents minors from accidentally discovering 16+ rated content • •

A website redesign is often a long and tortuous process, with significant stakeholder pressures and multiple objectives to manage at the same time. This was no exception. The front end changes (the look and feel of the of  the website) had to be combined with improvements to workflow and back end systems. With so many variables and a large number of  stakeholders to manage, the team decided to commission a prototype, as part of the of  the discovery   phase,  phase, to illustrate emerging ideas. Alison Crowe, Lead Product Development Manager at C4 says this proved invaluable in getting a common language around the proposition: What we What  we found   found is is having something visual is visual  is the greatest key  greatest  key to to getting useful  feedback   feedback   from stakeholders in particular. in  particular. You can have wireframes coming out of  out  of your  your ears ears but  until you until  you have something that looks that  looks like an online product  online product  ‐ that’s not necessarily  not  necessarily even even clickable – is –  is the best way  best  way to to elicit  feedback.  feedback.

17 18

These are just are just a sample of the of  the commercial objectives Also a sample of the of  the business improvement objectives

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The prototype was also useful in early audience testing and although not all the ideas made it through to final delivery, it helped clarify what worked and what didn’t before development had begun. Another useful tool for communicating with stakeholders and developers was the stripe ‐ a way of laying of  laying out visually on one page, the features and phasing; all linking back to the core business objectives that were agreed up front (above).

During the development phase, agile methodologies were used. Alison Crowe played the role of  product owner   product owner  –  – a single voice representing audiences and internal stakeholders at all times:  A lot of  lot  of the the time I was acting as proxy  as  proxy  for the  for  the business owner (Head  owner (Head of  of Online Online Richard  Davidson‐Houston), taking decisions on what should  what  should be be prioritised   prioritised  for the  for  the next iteration next  iteration – and  –  and going going back to back  to stakeholders and making and making sure they were they  were happy with happy with the the features  features that have that  have been fleshed  been  fleshed out. out.

As product manager, Crowe saw her role as being involved throughout all the stages of the of  the product development process, not just not  just in leading the up‐front definition, but in ensuring that what was eventually delivered matched the original brief. A key feature of Channel of  Channel 4’s product philosophy is the focus on audiences. Not only are individual products like Channel 4.com rigorously tested but there are regular 39

mandatory sessions where product managers watch audiences interact with all their products. Alison Crowe says that listening to audiences needs to happen before during and after launch: It’s not a not  a case of it  of  it being being done ... 4oD gaining great ground  great  ground etc. etc. It is It  is now a now  a case of  ongoing user testing. user  testing. We do surveys all year  all  year round  round and  and there there is a  field where  field  where users can give us free us  free form  form feedback   feedback and  and we we can take some of those of  those anecdotes and  feed them  feed  them into the product  the  product roadmap. roadmap.

Not all the desired features made it into the first release and these must now be prioritised against emerging requirements from audiences as they use the product. Part of the of  the product manager’s role at Channel 4 is to manage a rolling 12 month roadmap, where a launch is seen as part of an of  an ongoing process of prioritisation, of  prioritisation, development and feedback and where ‘good judgement’ ‘good judgement’ will be needed again and again. “You have to make calls, you have to make choices” says Richard Davidson‐ Houston, Head of Online. of  Online. “It happens that at Channel 4 we have a big impact with audiences on the one hand but relatively small resources on the other – other  – so we need people with excellent judgement.” excellent judgement.”

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3.5 Mobile IQ/BBCiPad Most of the of  the case studies in this report have focussed on product development within a single organisation. The BBC’s mobile application development followed a different route, where the technical build and some of the of  the interaction design was outsourced to a third party. This case study looks at the challenges and opportunities for product management where this approach is taken. Mobile IQ  IQ is is a small company based in Basingstoke, which has worked with some of  the biggest names in media to help them seize the opportunities in the mobile space. In developing mobile applications, where the technology is moving quickly, it can be more efficient to work with a third party. “With the BBC, they had a pretty strong view of what of  what they wanted to do,” says Managing Director and Founder Shaun Barriball. “What Mobile IQ  IQ brought brought to that discussion was our knowledge of what of  what the platform could do and what user expectations were.” The deadlines for creating the project were extremely tight. In February 2010, the BBC announced that it was moving in to the mobile application market with a news 19

and sport application and a month later it was decided to add an iPad application too. All of this of  this meant a severely compressed product development lifecycle and

heavy pressure on the team, led by Executive Product Manager for mobiles David

Madden:  Apple had asked  had asked us us to be a launch partner  launch  partner so so we had about  had  about 4 4‐6 weeks between them approaching us and us and  us shipping in the app store and that  and  that  included a included  a two week  period of   period of  Apple’s  Apple’s quality  approval and  approval  and review  review  process  process ... we had about  had  about 4 4 weeks to turn things around.

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Initially the launches were only international for the BBC’s commercial arm BBC Worldwide. The BBC Trust wanted to explore the justifications the justifications for a UK based app, following complaints from newspapers. The UK applications were later approved.

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Whilst the timescales helped focus the proposition, there were many different stakeholders at the BBC end – end  – commercial and public service as well as different technical, editorial and product teams. Many of these of  these teams were represented at workshops between the BBC and Mobile IQ  IQ where where the product vision was thrashed out. MD Shaun Barriball says it is often helpful to create a one or two sentence application definition statement, which normally starts “the application will mean .... these key words to a user”. For the BBC News application, this centred on being fast for news and included words like breaking, latest and skimming. “Every time we discussed features, we did a sanity check against these objectives and it really helped prioritise.” Although the workshops were helpful in moving towards a defined scope, Mobile IQ  project manager Elaine Roberts sometimes detected a lack of agreement of  agreement amongst the BBC stakeholders – stakeholders – and the scope continued to evolve while the product was in development. In an ideal world, what is Roberts looking for from a product manager at an organisation like the BBC? The product  The  product manager  manager needs needs to have a clear view  clear  view in in their heads their  heads of what  of  what the the product   product  needs to be. Because we can’t build  can’t  build everything everything in the the first   first release release and that  and  that  person  person needs to control the control  the scope of the of  the product.  product. The second  job  job is to be able to sit between sit  between us and the and  the stakeholder and  stakeholder and  filter out   filter  out the the various opinions and comments. and comments. They are They  are the one voice that we that  we speak to. speak  to. They might  They  might be be collating 15 different views, different  views, but they  but  they need  need to to make the decision.

With developers in Basingstoke and stakeholders in London – London – and with timescales short ‐ it was crucial that everyone was on the same wavelength. With new builds every day, bugs and editorial feedback had to be turned round every 24 hours. In addition to daily conference calls, an important early step was to agree to use a common communications tool, a web application called Pivotal Tracker which supports distributed teams working with agile methods. All of the of  the features were listed and prioritised in the application. This helped provide transparency between the teams over what was being worked on and how fast development was going. “It wouldn’t have worked to treat them in a waterfall fashion, when we’re working alongside them in an agile iterative way,” says Executive Product Manager David Madden. The BBC selected Mobile IQ  IQ partly partly because it was felt that working methods and culture were compatible. 42

But iterative working can present challenges when working with third party teams. In particular, it can make it difficult in setting the initial pricing ‐ as the specification and scope often clarifies later in the process. One model, used by Shaun Barriball at Mobile IQ, is to phase deliverables and pricing as the project goes on: It is It  is not a not  a traditional development  traditional development  project where  project  where you you provide  provide a spec and then and  then 6 months later we later  we deliver it. deliver  it. With apps, because it is it  is more iterative, it is it  is more of a of  a concept  initially. Then we do analysis for  analysis  for 4 4 weeks and then and then give a shopping list of  list  of options options because we understand the understand the practicalities  practicalities of each. of  each.

It is also important to consider the future roadmap – roadmap – and the involvement of the of  the third party in the initial thinking about price ‐ as the product will need regular iteration and change to reflect audience feedback and new technical possibilities. If  anything, this is more important in the fast moving mobile space. Both the iPad and iPhone global applications met their deadlines and both have been well received by users, but their future success will depend on what happens next – next  – on the product judgements product judgements that are made and the way the relationship develops with suppliers and experts like Mobile IQ.

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3.6. Huddle Huddle is a small online start up with offices in London and San Francisco. The Huddle product suite is a set of collaborative of  collaborative tools aimed at making businesses more productive. It includes communications, messaging, spaces for sharing and project management tools. Huddle has grown rapidly since it was founded in 2007 and today 20

is at the vanguard of the of  the software as a service movement .

As a business‐to‐business product it needs to satisfy both the people who use it every day, but also those who buy software for big companies like Disney and Nokia. Martin Eriksson, Vice President of Product of  Product says many of the of  the core principles are identical to managing a consumer product and that starts with ensuring there is a clear, well understood product  understood product vision: vision: The product  The  product vision vision is key because key  because it helps it  helps you make those decisions every day  every  day and  and  focus  focus on one thing – and  –  and that  that vision vision is about helping about  helping people  people work better  work  better  together.

A key part of Huddle’s of  Huddle’s success and rapid growth has been its customer focussed approach, trying to understand the problems businesses have. Input often comes from visiting customers; sitting behind them as they do their job their  job and watching the pain points as they move from one system to another. Feedback also comes via the sales team or by asking customers directly for their input. Huddle makes extensive

20

Software that runs over the internet makes it easy for clients to set up as all the servers required to run are external (in the cloud)

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use of an of  an online feedback tool called 21

User Voice User  Voice , which allows existing users to suggest new features and aggregates the most popular requests: Every time Every  time when we develop something we look at  look  at that  that list  list of  of items items and especially  and  especially when when it is it  is voted on voted  on we can see very quickly  very  quickly which which ideas bubble up to the top and which and  which ones most important  most  important to to our users. our  users.

A current project, which is rebuilding the project management suite from ground up, has been based on this kind of customer of  customer input. In other cases where you are looking to develop something new, says Eriksson, it may be less appropriate to ask customers exactly what they would like: The key is key  is to understand what  understand what the the user needs user  needs and  what the what  the problem  problem is you are trying to solve. There is the classic story that  story  that if  if Henry  Henry Ford  Ford had  had asked  asked his his customers what they  what  they wanted, wanted, they would  they  would have have said a said  a  faster horse.  faster horse. What they  What  they really  really wanted  wanted was was a better  way to way  to get  from A  from  A to B.

At the heart of Huddle’s of  Huddle’s approach is teamwork; software engineers, sales and product people working together to solve the problems identified by users. Company brainstorms often produce a long list of potential of  potential features: “Product people define the problem and then we let the development team and other parts of the of  the company work out how to solve some of those of  those problems, understanding that product management isn’t infallible and doesn’t have all the answers.”  answers.”  At this stage, developers can help identify where ‘quick wins’ might be, where you can get 80% of the of  the benefit for 20% of the of  the effort. Then the rest of the of  the list needs some severe prioritisation and tough choices. The first filter is the core company product vision. Does it meet the core aims of the of  the company? Beyond that, Eriksson uses a simple excel spreadsheet  excel spreadsheet with with two additional filters. These are the current KPIs for the product – product  – one relates to whether it will increase the core satisfaction score

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https://uservoice.com/

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(based on a monthly survey) and secondly the return on investment (cost versus return). The ideas are then scored and the top items move into development.

Agreed features are then broken down into user stories user  stories as part of an of  an agile 22

development process – process – Huddle uses a mix of XP of  XP and Scrum – Scrum – and these are entered into using an online tool (called Mingle). Each user story  user  story is is written to show the audience benefit and every two weeks the user stories are reprioritised by the product manager. Eriksson says that the key lesson in writing user stories is to keep them as simple as possible: The key  point of   point  of a a user story  user  story  for me  for  me is getting across the benefit to benefit  to the developer so developer  so they  understand why  understand why the the user wants user  wants this and what  and  what the the benefit is benefit  is going to be. So it is it  is not  just ‘I  just  ‘I want a want  a button here’, it is it  is that ‘I that  ‘I need to need  to save my documents my  documents when I  just uploaded   just  uploaded them’  them’  ‐ so the developer understands developer  understands the whole flow  whole  flow  ‐ what comes what  comes before and what  and what comes comes after.

In developing new features the day‐day involvement of the of  the product manager is critical in representing the users at all times; being available to answer questions to ensure development is not held up. At a small company like Huddle, much of the of  the activity revolves around the product role and with resource limited, the ability to 22

Extreme programming (XP) advocates frequent "releases" in short development cycles

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make the right calls in product development will ultimately be critical to the success of the of  the entire company.

3.7 BBC Wildlife Finder The BBC has been at the forefront of wildlife of  wildlife film making from early programmes such as Zoo Quest (1956) through to more recent multi million pound productions like Life on Earth (1979) and Blue Planet (2001). However this wealth of content of  content has been designed for linear television viewing and only recently has the BBC turned its mind to how it could open up this unique historical footage online and on demand. That was the genesis of Wildlife of  Wildlife Finder – Finder – a top down idea, backed by a wealth of great of  great content. Top down in the sense that it directly came from the business strategy of  strategy of the the BBC, to create a small number of  new high‐profile propositions that fitted the public purposes, to generate reach and repeat visits for the Vision/Knowledge area of the of  the 23

BBC . Natural history was felt to be a good fit, where the BBC had distinctive content that would not unduly distort the market and the money and resource was appropriately prioritised. The product task was to feed off  that strategy and shape it into a successful online product that would delight audiences and attract them back again and again. Tom Scott who took the role of  product manager for Wildlife Finder says that they’d been putting programme clips online for some time: We wanted to wanted  to go further, go  further, to help people help  people discover new  discover new  programmes from  programmes from the archive and to and  to gain a better  understanding of the of  the natural world; natural world; and to and  to do this we built  Wildlife Finder.

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BBC’s refocused strategy includes a section on building knowledge. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/04_april/25/creative_detail.shtml

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Wildlife Finder uses programme clips, combines them with other sources of  information from around the web to let audiences find out more about the world's wildlife, its animals, their behaviours and adaptations, and habitats. It does this by 24

providing a page ‐ a URI ‐ for every species, habitat and adaptation the BBC has content on and aggregating the information around that link. In addition to opening up the BBC's natural history archive, the wider BBC Earth project also encompassed a dedicated wildlife news service Earth News, closely linked with the main news site and Earth Explorers, a site which provide a more personal insight from crews on location.

Product shaping and product discovery There had already been a significant amount of work of  work before Tom Scott arrived on the project. There’d been some heavy duty audience analysis, breaking down the audience need into three main areas and a business case had articulated the key opportunities. Scott added an analysis of what of  what people were searching for in Google ‐ 2.5m searches a month for the words like ‘Panda’ and ‘Lion’ and millions of searches of  searches for terms like predators, rivers and rainforests. This perspective was then compared with the available programming content within the BBC Natural History Unit, which tended to be about animal behaviour or about specific animals or habitats. As product manager, Scott saw his job his  job as putting the pieces of the of  the puzzle together in a way that enabled audiences to find and enjoy this content The missing bit of  bit  of analysis analysis was the intersection between what audiences what audiences are thinking about and  about  and interested  interested in in and what  and  what the the BBC is BBC  is producing.  producing. By thinking By  thinking in this way, I wanted to wanted  to be able to hammock  people from  people  from a news story to story to a  programme or through or  through  programme pages  programme pages or  just hook   just hook new  new  people  people because they were they were searching for  searching for  new information. new  information.

Unlike some product  some  product discovery  discovery processes processes that are focussed around personas, Tom Scott felt that this kind of product of  product suited a domain driven design approach. The research therefore focussed on what mattered to audiences, on how they thought, and the information and ultimately the experience was built around that. This became the high level product  level product vision, vision, which Scott and the team then sold back into the business with the help of designs, of  designs, prototypes and an updated business case. The high‐level vision, which is displayed prominently on the project wiki says: 24

Uniform Resource Indicator is a is a string of characters of characters used to identify a name or a resource on the Internet.

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BBC Earth BBC  Earth is intended to intended  to make the BBC’s Natural History  Natural History content  content more more available and  discoverable on the web.

This vision is supported by a two sentence description of the of  the three elements of the of  the project including Wildlife Finder, Earth News and Earth Explorers and the project was underpinned by a set of further of  further principles about matching the right technology to user need ‐ set out as a manifesto (below):

These principles were fully discussed at the start by stakeholders ‐ and proved important in a number of ways of  ways as the project developed. The principle of persistence of  persistence helped deliver an appropriate approach to rights acquisition. The commitment to linked open data and the resources of the of  the web meant that editorial resource needed to be assigned to partnerships, with a range of policy of  policy and editorial implications. In the end, editorial partnerships included the International Union for Conservation of Nature of  Nature (IUCN) who compile the Red Data List for data on the species conservation status, the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), the University of Michigan of  Michigan and the Zoological Society of London of  London to provide information about the threats to the most endangered and unique species. There was also substantial usage of Wikipedia of  Wikipedia to provide general background information on each animal, habitat or adaptation. The project also has a number of business of business and stakeholder challenges, not least the involvement of commercial of  commercial partners BBC Worldwide and the Discovery channel, although these eventually dropped out and a simpler public service proposition was developed.

How was the team structured and how did the product manager gain authority? The product manager role was recruited by commissioner Lisa Sargood, the business owner who owner  who had been given the task of getting of  getting the project up and running and was clear about the qualities required:

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I was looking for  looking  for a a hybrid, someone who was editorially and  editorially  and technically  technically savvy. savvy. The language that he that  he [Scott] spoke enabled him enabled him to bridge the gap between editorial and  editorial  and  technical and  technical  and talk  talk to to both sides in an understandable way. He was really clear  really  clear about  about  what was what  was possible  possible and able and  able to communicate with the whole team. He had a had  a really  strong overview of  overview of the the whole product. whole  product.

An added bonus was that Scott was a biologist so not only did he have editorial and technical knowledge but he also understood the terminology he was using for the subject he was dealing with. According to Sargood this proved critical: Products in my experience my  experience are hard work. hard  work. You need to need  to have someone who has a very  clear vision clear  vision of what  of  what the the product   product is is going to do for  do  for the the audience and to and  to keep that in that  in mind  and to and  to push  push that through that  through the team.

The biggest problem at the start, for Scott, was a fuzziness and confusion about roles within the team, with a tendency for everybody to stick fingers into other people’s pies. Tom describes this as “something of a of  a BBC disease”. He admires the IBM ideas 25

about T shaped people ‐ those that have a clear passion, but an interest in all 26

areas : The thing that you that you are brilliant at  brilliant  at you you should become should  become brilliant at, brilliant at, but you but  you need to need  to be aware and sensitive and sensitive about everyone about everyone else’s role but that  but  that doesn’t  doesn’t mean mean you should  interfere in their  job.  job. If you If  you can encourage that behaviour  that  behaviour then then you are more likely to likely  to get  successful  products.  products.

In the BBC, says Scott, there is often a distinction in a much more polarised way than elsewhere. “A product has to be a successful synergy of design, of  design, technology and content and the role of the of  the product manager is to ensure that those three elements come together in a way that delights the audience.” He believes that it is unhealthy to separate these things out. “Depending on people’s background, they’ll require support in different areas, but ultimately the job the  job is to be responsible for all these areas.”

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The concept of T of  T‐shaped skills, skills, or T‐shaped persons is a metaphor used in job in job recruitment to describe the abilities of persons of  persons in the workforce. WikiPedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T ‐shaped_skills 26

IDEO exec Tim Brown on T Shaped people http://www.chiefexecutive.net/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications::Article&mid =8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=F42A23CB49174C5E9426C43CB0A0BC46

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The importance and role of editorial of  editorial lead Like many new products, Wildlife Finder required a consistent stream of relevant of  relevant editorial content and some significant changes to workflow. There was a large amount of work of  work to be done in costing and negotiating rights clearances and identifying editorial content that would meet the defined audience needs. For staff in staff  in the Natural History Unit all three products (Wildlife Finder, Earth News and Earth Explorer) also required training on new content input mechanisms. In this sense the product manager needed to work closely with an editorial lead, editorial lead, who took responsibility for the content, the team managing the content, the metadata describing that content and the processes and workflows sitting around that. Penny Hunter who took this editorial role, worked closely with the product manager, advising him on the feasibility of new of  new product development and inputting ideas to the roadmap. Hunter says she particularly valued the iterative nature of the of  the process: The fact  The  fact that  that we we are continually reviewing continually reviewing and looking and  looking for   for audience audience feedback,  feedback, learning  from what we’ve what  we’ve done; the the fact   fact that  that it  it is is always open to change is incredibly valuable. incredibly valuable.

The iterative nature of the of  the process is underpinned by a considerable amount of face of face‐ to‐face time. Tom Scott spends two days a week in Bristol, the editorial base of the of  the Natural History Unit. Commissioner Lisa Sargood says the relationship between the editorial lead and the product manager is critical because of the of  the overlap between the user journeys user journeys and the strength of the of  the editorial content that lies behind those user  journeys. The key thing, says Sargood is to ensure that the “right people are in place with the right skills and mutual understanding”.

How did the role of product of  product manager work during the build phase? Each sprint was two weeks long and at the sprint planning meeting, Scott took the role of product of  product owner in the agile process. He outlined the objectives that they were working towards, talked through the items on the backlog and the priority of the of the items ‐ and then there was a detailed discussion about how they would be delivered. Once the sprint started, the day to day task management was down to the scrum master. Scott sees a major part of his of  his role as thinking strategically about the future. The roadmap is divided into iterative improvements and content development ‐ which stripes throughout the year ‐ and major functional development. The challenge is getting the balance right between the two.

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He keeps a rolling high level roadmap that describes the major releases through the year and then a detailed product backlog which breaks that down into specific features. Scott prefers the product backlog approach over a document that gets signed off, because he finds it more flexible and easier to incorporate what works with live data and live use.

Wildlife Finder product backlog (above) is kept in Pivotal Tracker, making it easy to reprioritise

Wildlife Finder has taught Scott a number of key of  key lessons about how to develop successful products. He is a huge advocate of working of  working with a multi‐disciplinary integrated team, built around a shared product vision. He is also passionate about the need to be externally focussed. “You have to be ruthless and focus on doing those things that make the product better for the audience, rather than creating artefacts for the business that don't help.”

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4. Masterclass interviews Two exponents of the of  the art of product of  product management reveal some of the of  the tricks of the of  the trade.

4.1 Anthony Rose Anthony Rose was CTO of Kazaa of  Kazaa & Altnet before arriving at the BBC. He turned BBC iPlayer into one of the of  the UK’s most successful digital products. Now he is working to create platforms and products for YouView.

What did you learn from the early days of BBC of  BBC iPlayer? When I saw the proposed BBC iPlayer, it was a pretty poor user proposition. I assumed that the developers weren’t very good, but when I arrived, I found the real problem was that they were being pulled in different directions. My analysis was that BBC iPlayer started with satisfying goals of the of  the BBC Trust and BBC editorial and content rights people and the (wider) content owners, and none of  it had the word consumer in consumer in it. It was about ... taking things away from away from consumers ... and because it had taken so long, the technology was also no longer relevant. So the key to it ‐ as for most products ‐ is having a single clear vision and working out who to listen to and who not. One of the of  the first things I did was to put myself as myself  as a star or hub connector – connector – a filter to the rest of the of  the business ‐ so that there was one clear unambiguous voice to the developer team.

Would you say that looking at things from a consumer’s point of view of  view was the key to turning things round? It’s absolutely about the consumer, but it is also about the interplay between the consumer and what technology will be able to do. If you If  you ask audiences, through consumer testing, they’ll tell you the state of the of the world as they know it. So for example on Canvas we’re doing consumer research and they say it is all about catch up TV not web applications – applications – because no‐one has seen a web app on a TV yet. But in due course it may turn out that web applications are huge. Consumers give you feedback on what they know. Technology can help invent new things and a successful product sits somewhere in between the two.

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There are so many possibilities, how do you decide what features to include? How do you keep the product simple? As far as I can tell there are always two markets to address and you need to address each of them of  them independently. The first market, the real market, is the mainstream consumer market ; the second market is the early adopters, the people who will write about your product well before it is launched. The challenge is to target both and keep both happy. In BBC iPlayer, initially the blogosphere was very anti the BBC because it was perceived as being pro‐Microsoft – Microsoft – for that reason I targeted the Wii and the iPhone specifically with versions for those devices. The challenge is to meet the needs of both of  both audiences in a single product – product  – a particular challenge with BBC iPlayer Version 3, where we wanted to introduce advanced features such as social and chat around content… and then there is your mum who just who  just wants Eastenders and says ‘What’s all this nonsense about following and tweeting – tweeting – I  just want the programme’.

How important is it to have a product vision? Vision and gut instinct are essential. You can’t be a product owner without having a vision and you can’t be a product owner without living the dream every day. For me I have iPlayer hooked up to my television in about 8 different ways, and I watch iPlayer downloads on the tube on a Sony Walkman. I have an iPod/iPhone. I find problems more frequently than other people because I’m there as a passionate end user.

But you are not exactly a typical end user? You’re right. I’m a geek. I like to have lots of tech of  tech and that’s very different from somebody who isn’t in that demographic. Now, in the ongoing evolution of the of  the iPlayer, I may not the best person to drive it going forward because the technology problems have largely been sorted. Initially there were problems about video encoding and distribution but those now tick along and your next set of things of  things is a challenge on how to create the best consumer proposition for a more mainstream audience. With iPlayer Version 3, more effort went into designing the proposition on paper than building it – it  – building it was the easy bit. Deciding on product features took us longer than building those features! As you move through a technology lifecycle the problems to be solved change quite dramatically.

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Who should lead a product like BBC iPlayer where there are user experience, marketing, editorial and engineering challenges? There are various models, and the one that has been dominant at the BBC is that User Experience (UX) leads. The problem is that UX looks at technology that exists today not at the technology that may exist in future so you can have a conservative design that fails to take advantage of latest of  latest developments. On the flip side if  technology leads you get a product that is brilliantly clever but no‐one can use. For me, unambiguously, I prefer to see a single product owner with all of those of  those work threads reporting into him or her.

As a product manager, how do you keep in touch with what people think about your product? Several times a day I’ll do twitter searches on the word iPlayer or look at Google News feeds or blogs and if you if  you ever see something negative, you need to robustly follow it up. Part of the of  the challenge is that you always want to be working on the next version, but you also need to fix and maintain the current one. There is a great phrase ‘broken window syndrome’; there is even a Wikipedia page about it (about how  about  how New  New York  York  [1]

tenements quickly  fall into  fall  into decay after  decay after more more than 3 or 4 or  4 broken windows) . If you If  you have one or two small bugs in a product, it is not an issue but if a if  a user sees several problems they think it is Swiss cheese ...there are holes everywhere. That is really bad and so every day you must identify the key problems through formal audience feedback and your own feedback. Whenever I’m at an airport or go and visit a relative, I always go and visit the airport kiosk, or their computer ‐ I think I’m a renowned pain for doing it ‐ to see iPlayer on their computer. Often you find they don’t have the right graphics hardware or the right wi‐fi connection or it is too slow. Understanding all these weird things can ultimately help you improve the product.

When you can’t do all the things you want – want  – how do you prioritise? I wish I had the answer on prioritisation ‐ I am renowned for feature creep. I look at the critical path to the project and I try to add features to just to  just those things that are not on the critical path. But it turns out that those things do affect the critical path anyway and then you have to have a big reprioritisation – reprioritisation – and all your dreams move to the next release. I don’t have a clear answer.

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I think what I do instead is try to create building blocks that help power an unknown future. I focus more on the underlying pieces which I can then assemble flexibly in many ways later. Often the developers won’t understand and say ‘what is the use case’? I say ‘trust me, you’ll need this later’.

How do you deal with difficult stakeholders? There are two extremes: to love them to death, to engage constantly and seek their opinions; or the fortress siege mentality where they become difficult and you simply stop asking them. I usually try the first and end up retreating to the second. The problem I have is there are too many things to do in a day and I try to pick the ones which are most rewarding for me personally, like talking to developers who say ‘yes’. The problem with not dealing not  dealing with stakeholders is that they become unhappy and to the extent that they are funding you ‐ or your success is dependent on them ‐ that is not good. Secondly you are missing a trick. It is important to get the relationship symmetric or with some parity so that it works correctly and both parties are suitably empowered.

What are your top 3 tips for successful products 1. Listen for the what  not the how . People will ask you for things, stakeholders or your own team. They are asking for a ‘what’, but it usually comes bundled with a ‘how’ . Figure out what the ultimate abstracted goal is. Ignore the how ‐ and figure out how to get there yourself and yourself and you’ll get a much better product. 2. Always focus on the customer: Obviously figure out who the customer is first, because you will find yourself being yourself being pulled in any number of directions of  directions for technical, product accessibility or whatever reason and if you if  you lose sight of the of  the consumer you will have a less good product. 3. Ship early, ship often. The reality is that if you if  you take a waterfall approach, you miss the opportunity for consumers to give you feedback sooner. It’s almost always better to ship a product with fewer features, get feedback and every few weeks do another release. Resist at all costs people pushing things further out. If it If  it takes more than 3 months you should rejig features so it can ship more often.

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4.2 Hunter Walk ‐ YouTube How do you define the role of product of  product management at You Tube? What are the core elements of the of  the role? Product management at YouTube is about working cross functionally to define long‐ term vision and near‐term roadmaps for our products. Product managers tend to have technical backgrounds although they are expected to work well with both engineers and non‐technical team members in marketing, sales, etc.

How well understood is it by the rest of the of  the organisation and where does it sit ‐ in engineering, marketing or a separate division? Product management is in a separate division apart from engineering or marketing. Although the job the  job of product of  product management is rarely routine, cross‐functionally we're expected to be the glue which holds teams together and helps everyone succeed in creating amazing products and healthy businesses

How do you split the product roles? Do you have sub‐products, senior people, more technical product managers for components etc? We attempt to keep the organisation as flat as possible so the majority of product of  product managers won't have any direct reports. In many ways the job the  job of the of  the product manager doesn't change based on their seniority, rather the scope and complexity of  their projects grow. The number of product of  product managers at YouTube/Google is tied to a ratio of product of  product managers: engineers but can differ based on the product.

How does product management fit with the other roles (marketing, UX, commercial, engineering) – engineering) – which are the most important interfaces/relationships for you? We work cross‐functionally with all these other groups. Most often the product manager of an of  an effort is paired with an engineering tech lead (who may not be the people manager of the of  the engineering team). All of the of  the interfaces are important. A product manager will assemble a core team for their effort which includes representatives from the major functions that they need to help their product succeed. For example, a monetization product manager might have someone from Sales on their virtual core team, while someone building a consumer product might not have Sales representation.

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How important is a product vision and product principles – principles – do you have them – them – how do you ensure that all those working on the product understand these? Fundamentally these are what the product manager is responsible for delivering in addition to the tactical day‐to‐day execution. We manage largely through collaboration and transparency. We have quarterly objectives and a key results template where individuals and teams identify their goals. These goals are linked to projects and metrics. The projects and metrics are linked to a strategic plan/vision. All of this of  this information is published and visible.

How do you do product definition? What is the Product Manager role in the build and launch of products of  products or new features? Product managers drive the process to get to a plan of record. of  record. This always means collaboration but not necessarily consensus ‐ hard decisions make for good products. The PM needs to ensure that people on the team have a chance to input, to own the outcome and clarity on what decisions were made, even if every if  every individual doesn't agree with every conclusion. We use a process that is relatively bottom‐up in terms of teams of  teams figuring out the best way to accomplish target goals and advance the overall product strategy.

How do you keep in touch with what people think about your product, what specific methods do you find most useful to understand how people use the product and how do you feed that back into roadmaps? We use a variety of quantitative of  quantitative and qualitative feedback ranging from metrics/dashboards, user research/testing, social media monitoring and our own team feeling/usage of our of  our products. We definitely practice constant iteration and prioritise bugs/feature requests in order to ensure we don't lose the trees when we look at the forest. We try to focus on a subset of metrics of  metrics which we believe are the key health indicators of our of our business and know that sometimes these will change over time. These are the metrics which are then used in our quarterly/annual planning cycles.

How do you manage your prioritisation (new features or just or  just bugs) – bugs) – what to do next. How do you keep focus? How do you keep strategic...Any tips or tricks? This is one of the of  the greatest challenges when you have a lot of ideas. of  ideas. We try to balance bottom up interest and top down priorities. We provide engineers the flexibility to work on features they think will improve the overall YouTube experience. At the end of the of  the day, teams are focused on their measurable stretch goals and so are able to 58

prioritise based upon these metrics, experiential goals and the overall objectives of  the company. If we If  we have clarity on those guiding truths, then teams/individuals are able to, in the moment, ask themselves what features/bugs will be most useful in accomplishing these goals. We attempt to work on high impact/low work features, then high impact/high work. Low impact/low work are good for experiments and we try to avoid low impact/high work projects although sometimes you don't know until you're able to test impact. That's why we think a lot about minimum viability for testing an idea ‐ build the minimum to prototype it before you throw too many resources behind it.

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5. Conclusions and reflections on product success New technology has brought unparalleled opportunities to create new products and services, but the reality is that the vast majority of these of  these fail. “The internet is littered with things you could do,” could  do,” says Channel 4’s Richard Davidson‐Houston. “The winners are the things you should  do.” Creating successful products is all about understanding the difference between the two. In a world of endless of  endless possibility, there is little value in offering a ‘me too’ service. Audiences are smart. Winner takes all. Successful products must offer something distinctive and useful enough to entice people back again and again. That’s why the top practitioners in this study focus so much on getting the product  the  product vision vision right in the first place– on discovering a product that meets the strategic objectives and capabilities of a of  a company and a fundamental audience need. The heart of the of  the product manager’s job manager’s job is to co‐ordinate that process and then doggedly to see it through, developing that vision over time. There are many tricks and tools that can be deployed to help – help  – a number are set out in this report – report  – but ultimately success comes down to a small number of key of  key qualities: •

Passion: Great products are made by people who live and breathe them. It’s a 24x7 passion that gets the BBC’s Anthony Rose checking his product at airport terminals and in the homes of his of  his relatives. It can be infuriating, but is also infectious – infectious – and it is essential in persuading stakeholders and audiences to come on your journey. your journey. As YouTube’s Hunter Walk points out: “No one is going to care more about your product than you do, so you need to be the keeper of the of  the flame”.

•

Empathy: It is crucial to be able to see the product from other people’s point of view; of  view; to really get close to audiences, for example, and to feel their pain. But it is also important to understand where all your different internal stakeholders are coming from. Marketing, UX, editorial, engineering and sales will have pain points too. Understanding these won’t just won’t  just make your relationships easier, it will lead to a better product.

•

Judgement: Listening to others and gathering good data is essential ‐ but it is not enough. A product manager needs to back this up with the confidence to weigh up the evidence and make judgements make  judgements ‐ to make clear decisions and live with the consequences.

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•

anywhere – but only if you if  you are Curiosity: inspiration and ideas can come from anywhere – open to the possibility. “Never stop learning,” advises Hunter Walk.

Not all of these of  these qualities can be taught; certainly not in a classroom. They come from within – within  – but also from watching and learning from others. There’s also a huge body of good of  good practice in this study and other reports which can be shared – shared  – driving a virtuous cycle of improvement. of  improvement. Clarifying and the explaining the product development process, and the different stages and roles within it, is an essential pre‐requisite for success not just not  just for product managers but for the wider industry. Only if each if  each group : UX, Editorial, Product, Engineering, Operations, Marketing and Sales – Sales  – understands its role, can individuals feel secure and confident about their contribution. The Guardian News and Media chart in section 2.5 might be a good basis for creating a simple overview for the media industry; as a starting point for more common standards and terminology. Beyond that the many case studies in this report demonstrate that product management skills and processes themselves are making a significant difference to how media companies transition into the digital age: •

There is widespread recognition of the of  the value of putting of  putting “audiences at the centre of the of  the frame,” in the words of BBC of  BBC iPlayer’s James Hewines. That is not  just about usability testing at the end of the of  the process, but rigorous consultation up front as the proposition is being developed and an ongoing culture of  listening to audiences.

•

There’s increased confidence in more agile and iterative processes – processes – not just not  just for software coding but as a way of increasing of  increasing the visibility and understanding of the of  the entire product vision.

•

There’s a realisation that evidence‐based approaches, such as data analysis and proposition testing, can improve decision making, reduce risk and increase profits.

•

And there’s an increased understanding that product management is not just not  just about launching something new, but is about rigorously planning and managing an entire lifecycle.

Many have come to recognise the key ingredients of success. of  success. “It has to be the right idea and have good taste, but the execution and delivery are what's key,” says 27

Google’s Sergey Brin . The modern product manager is at the centre of all of  all of these of  these 27

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/17/google ‐sergey‐brin

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things providing the good taste and judgement and  judgement that turns good ideas into great products. As this study has shown there is increasing recognition of the of  the importance of these of  these skills as product management is taken more seriously across the industry.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS  Agile process:  Agile process: a group of software of  software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development. Common types are Scrum and XP  Application definition statement: like a vision statement, expresses the usefulness of  a web or mobile application in terms of audience of  audience benefit  Audience insight: individual or team which works closely with product managers to understand and interpret audience need and behaviour B2B products: B2B  products: describes products that are sold to other businesses. Contrasting terms are business‐to‐consumer (B2C) and business‐to‐government (B2G) Business analyst: traditional IT function to interpret business rules and requirements for technical systems. A generic role, not normally product specific Business case: a formal document with outlines the cost/benefit of a of  a product or project, normally with the aim of getting of getting approval to spend money Business objectives: overarching business goals which need to align with and inform product targets and investments Business owner: owner of the of  the overall business strategy and often of profit of  profit and loss (P&L). Key sponsor of product of  product roadmap, business cases and the rest Commissioning: How linear TV and radio programmes are brought into being ‐ through spending of budgets. of  budgets. Commissioners sometimes play a similar role with digital products in a multiplatform world. Competitive analysis: process of evaluating of  evaluating the competition used in discovery phase discovery phase Discovery: the process of working of  working out what a product should be and how it can provide compelling benefit(s) to users Domain: Domain: an area of specialist of  specialist knowledge and expertise e.g search technologies, mobile, or news

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Editorial lead: Editorial lead: works with a product manager to focus editorial input and feedback into projects and product roadmap Functional specification: Functional specification: key document in the Waterfall project management process. See also Product Definition Document Interaction designer: see user experience (UX) design Minimum scope: a key role of the of  the product manager is to define the minimum scope Multivariate testing: a technique for testing hypotheses on complex multi‐variable systems such a different website layouts – layouts – also A/B testing Net  promoter:  promoter: commonly used measure of quality of  quality derived from asking audience if  they would recommend a product to friends Opportunity assessment  Opportunity assessment document: document: a document that looks at the potential for a new product area Portals: a product that acts as a gateway to a wide range of content of  content e.g. a homepage Product backlog: Product backlog: A list of features of  features that still need completing. The backlog is typically used in agile methodologies, where backlog items are prioritised by a product manager Product council: Product council: a group that approves and inputs into products and prioritises between products in a product portfolio Product Definition Product Definition Document (PDD): Document (PDD): Sets out the scope and key functions of a of  a product. Normally used in a waterfall process. Product line: Product line: a collection of products of  products that make sense to group together Product marketing Product marketing representative: oversees a communication plan to sell a new product or explain major changes to a product to existing audiences Product owner: Product owner: the role of product of  product manager in the agile process is prioritising and making decisions on behalf of  behalf of audiences audiences and as proxy for the business owner Product  planning:  planning: the ongoing process of identifying of  identifying and articulating market requirements that define a product’s feature set Product  principles:  principles: a set of statements of  statements that help guide the development of the of  the product

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Product roadmap: Product roadmap: a plan for how the product will be developed and how and when new features will be released Product vision: Product vision: an expression of the of  the value/benefit of the of  the product to users. A product vision is a key outcome of a of  a product discovery process Product vision Product vision statement: a pithy summary of the of  the vision, normally in terms of  audience benefit Proposition development: alternative term for product discovery process (e.g. Yahoo) Prototype: initial product version which demonstrates the very basic functionality of  a proposed development for purpose of testing of  testing or to build common understanding. Platform: hardware architecture and software framework (including application frameworks), that allows software products to run Success criteria (KPI): measurable audience or technical targets that normally are part of a of  a business case or other internal planning and evaluation process Technical Product  Technical Product Manager: Manager: description of product of  product managers that work on platform products, content systems or other deeply technical areas TV Platforms TV  Platforms products:  products: a software driven product that appears on a television such as an interactive TV or IPTV application User experience User  experience (UX) design: design: relates to the creation of the of  the architecture and interaction models that impact user experience of a of  a product, device or system. Relates to interaction design, user centred design User story: User  story: an artefact of the of  the agile process that describes a required feature through its user benefit Vertical: a product aimed at addressing the needs of a of  a specialist area e.g. Guardian environment section or motors section of a of  a newspaper Vision and Scope and  Scope document: see Product Definition Product Definition Document  Visual design Visual design:: often a specialist function within a design group that adds typography, branding and emotional connection to interaction models and product wireframes

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INTERVIEWS AND CONTRIBUTERS Garry Avery, CEO, Tarigo Martin Eriksson, VP Product Huddle Richard Davidson‐Houston, Head of Online of  Online Channel 4 Alison Crowe, Lead Product Development Manager, Online Products, Channel 4 Marc Frons, Chief Technology Chief  Technology Officer, New York Times Digital Fiona Spruill, Editor of the of  the Web newsroom, New York Times Hunter Walk, Product Manager, YouTube Mary‐Beth Christie, Head of Product of  Product Management, FT.com Tanya Cordrey, Guardian News & Media (former Product Director eBay) Mike Bracken, Technology Director Guardian News & Media Piers Jones, Head of Product of  Product Development Guardian News & Media Mairead O'Connor, Product Manager, Guardian News & Media Robin Pembrooke, Group Director, Online and Interactive, Global Radio Shaun Barriball, MD and founder Mobile IQ  Elaine Roberts, Project Manager Mobile IQ  Anthony Rose, CTO Project Canvas – Canvas  – former Head of BBC of  BBC iPlayer and former CTO of  Kazaa/Altnet Fabian Birgfeld, Head UX News and Knowledge, BBC Future Media Marcelo Marer, General Manager UX&D, BBC Future Media Chris Russell, Head of Product of  Product Management News and Knowledge, BBC Future Media Rebecca Salsbury, Head of Product of  Product Delivery, Online Technology Group, BBC Future Media Lisa Sargood, Commissioner BBC Vision Penny Hunter, editorial lead BBC Wildlife Finder James Hewines, Head of BBC of  BBC iPlayer David Madden, Executive Product Manager BBC Mobile 65

Tom Scott, Digital Editor and product manager Wildlife Finder Peter Deslandes Product Manager BBC Weather Nicki Sheard, Head of Marketing of  Marketing for BBC News Silver Oliver, Interaction Designer BBC Weather Anthony Sullivan, Product Manager BBC News Louise Vinter, Research Manager BBC Journalism Ian Hunter Managing Editor, BBC Online (Editorial Lead, iPlayer)

BIBIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READING Marty Cagan, Inspired: How To How  To Create Products that Customers that  Customers Love (SVPG Press 2008) Marty Cagan, SVPG blog http://www.svpg.com/articles Mike Cohn, User Stories User  Stories Applied:  Applied: For  Agile  Agile Software Development (Addison Development (Addison‐Wesley 2004) Robert G Cooper, Winning at New  at  New Products: Products: Accelerating  Accelerating the Process from Process  from Idea to Launch (Perseus publishing 2001) Steven Haines, The Product Manager’s Product Manager’s Desk Reference Desk  Reference (McGraw Hill 2009) – 2009)  – for reference Anthony W Ulwick, What Customers What  Customers Want (McGraw Want (McGraw Hill 2005) Roman Pichler, Agile Pichler,  Agile Product Management  Product Management with with Scrum: Creating Products that Customers that  Customers Love (Addison‐Wesley 2010) Roman Pichler, Product manager  Product manager as as product   product owner  owner in in agile http://www.romanpichler.com/blog/

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